Tanzanian dies after
being tossed out of
sixth floor window
in
THISDAY REPORTER & AGENCIES
Dar es Salaam
Zane Omar’s younger brother, Said, died on Monday as a result of injuries he sustained after allegedly being forced out of a sixth-floor window at Venture Africa, a shelter for refugees along Broad Street in the South African port town of Durban.
And according to Zane, he himself would almost certainly have suffered a similar fate if he hadn’t hidden in the bathroom.
Latest media reports from South Africa quote him as saying: ’’I feel so scared. I have no money to move, so I have to continue staying at the shelter because I have already paid for the month.’’
’’My father is very worried and phoned me from Tanzania after Said died. He is afraid that he will lose yet another son. I live in fear of being the next victim. I do not know when and how I will be killed,’’ he added.
Zane’s older brother, Ramadhani, also died in the xenophobic violence that swept South Africa last year.
In this latest incident, he recalled how he hid in a toilet on Sunday night as a local mob allegedly assaulted foreigners staying at the shelter and ransacked their rooms.
’’I first saw them downstairs. There must have been about 40 or 50 of them, both men and women. We even know most of them,’’ he said.
He continued: ’’They came upstairs and I made my girlfriend hide under the bed, while I hid in the toilet. They did not find me. But they went upstairs to Said’s floor...and pushed him out of the window.’’
Two other residents at the shelter, Osman Masud and Bonta Mohadi, sustained broken limbs after they were allegedly forced to jump from the third floor of the building.
Another foreign national, Benny Hassan, was returning to his flat on Maude Mfusi (St George’s) Street in Durban on Saturday, along with his three-year-old son and a local friend, when they were allegedly attacked by a group of around 30 men and women.
’’They not only attack us, they are also stealing our money and documents. But yet they are saying they don’t want crime here,’’ he said.
A total of 238 Tanzanians have been internally displaced in the xenophobic attacks that have resulted in about 50 deaths and left about 30,000 people homeless in South Africa.
About half of the Tanzanian refugees still in the country are yet to apply for a voluntary repatriation home.
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