Market News

By Tim Cocks

DURBAN, South Africa, June 15 (Reuters) — When 33-year-old Princess Adjei opened her hair salon in downtown Durban in November, she had already spent nearly her entire life in South Africa after arriving from Ghana as a toddler. There was no other country she considered home.

Adjei completed all her schooling in South Africa, speaks Zulu, and has local friends. Until recently, it rarely occurred to her that she might be viewed as an outsider.

On May 18, demonstrators participating in an anti-migrant march broke into her salon and looted it. Suddenly, even people she knew began telling her to go "home" to a country she has visited only once.

Adjei is among scores of victims caught up in attacks targeting mostly African foreign nationals, whom an anti-immigration movement accuses of living in South Africa illegally. Many of those affected, however, possess legal documentation and have lived in the country for decades.

"They took everything," Adjei said as she surveyed the wreckage of her first-floor salon, surrounded by smashed mirrors and broken chairs.

"Those were hair pieces I was selling here," she told Reuters, pointing to a wall of empty hooks. "There were acrylic nails, six hair dryers, a range of shampoos. All gone."

Migrants Sleep on Streets After Attacks

Adjei said she spent 50,000 rand (more than $3,000) renovating the salon in February. This month, she was forced to leave her apartment in central Durban.

"Without the salon, I don't have money for rent," she said, showing Reuters a blanket where she and her 14-year-old son now sleep alongside about 200 other migrants on a pavement outside a government office.

The migrants have established a makeshift camp outside the Department of Home Affairs, hoping officials can confirm their residency status.

Others have fled towns and cities across South Africa, seeking refuge on mountainsides and open ground amid violence that has killed at least five people and strained diplomatic relations with other African nations.

Reuters interviewed a dozen migrants in Durban, including four who have lived in South Africa since childhood.

March and March, the organization that initiated the protests last month, rejects accusations of xenophobia.

"Xenophobia applies to those people who come to a country illegally and make people from that country feel uncomfortable," said Jacinta Ngobese, founder of March and March.

Ngobese argued that her movement has redirected public anger toward the government rather than migrants. Nevertheless, the group's demonstrations have frequently coincided with violence, including the looting of foreign-owned businesses and the destruction of homes.

"We are not responsible for the violence," she said. "If we were violent, we would have been arrested."

Migrants Say Police Turned Them Away

Following the unrest in Durban, approximately 200 migrants sought shelter outside the city's central police station.

Four migrants interviewed by Reuters, including Adjei, said police escorted them first to a homeless shelter and later to a market warehouse. In both locations, existing occupants refused to accommodate them.

The following day, police allegedly ordered them to leave and later dispersed them using tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, according to the migrants and local media reports.

"They told us to look for another shelter," said Congolese refugee Tchomba Kasongo, displaying a scar on his leg that he said was caused by a rubber bullet.

The migrants now fear a June 30 deadline set by protesters for all allegedly "illegal" migrants to leave the country.

Durban police spokesperson Booysie Zungu denied the allegations.

"We never tear-gassed anyone, we never fired on anyone," he told Reuters. Asked about attacks on migrant-owned businesses, including Adjei's salon, he said no such cases had been officially reported.

"We don't have cases of that nature reported. They must open a case," Zungu said.

A spokesperson for Durban's mayor declined to comment.

Old Friends Turn Against Migrants

When Adjei returned to her apartment after discovering her salon had been looted, she encountered a South African neighbor she had long considered a friend.

The two had often shared tea and conversations in their apartment corridor. This time, however, he demanded to know when she planned to leave the country.

It was the third major outbreak of xenophobic hostility Adjei had experienced since arriving in South Africa. The first occurred during anti-immigrant violence in 2008, when classmates who had previously shown little interest in her nationality began bullying her.

Some South Africans have continued to support migrants.

After the latest attacks, 25-year-old Congolese refugee Wivene Bahati, who has lived in South Africa since 2011 and now sleeps on the pavement near Adjei, said an old school friend reached out to check on her.

"She felt bad. She asked me if everything was okay," Bahati said.

Migrants Blamed for Economic Pressures

Analysts say migrants are often viewed as competitors for jobs and public services, making them convenient scapegoats when economic conditions deteriorate or government services fail.

Anti-migrant sentiment has also tended to intensify around election periods, when politicians sometimes exploit the issue for populist support. South Africa is scheduled to hold local elections by November.

Thamsanqa Ntuli, Premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, where Durban is located, rejected suggestions that political factors are driving xenophobia, instead pointing to illegal migration.

"We agree with the entire society when they say: 'Government, you should have started to manage migration properly a long time ago,'" Ntuli told Reuters.

($1 = 16.2213 rand)

Reporting by Tim Cocks; additional reporting by Rogan Ward in Durban; editing by Andrew Heavens.