A Zimbabwean man, a father of five, has been stoned to death for being a Zimbabwean, in a brutal xenophobic attack believed to be organised by local ANC local leaders.
Those who knew him say Sergent Kanyimo was a quiet man whose only passion was his wife and five children back home in Zimbabwe.
The xenophobic attack happened in the early hours of Good Friday in Wallacedene, Kraaifontein, as Sergent left for work in Simon's Town. Homeowner Maduna Mwahla, 56, says she was shocked to see the bloodied man in her yard. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would one kill a man simply because he comes from another country?" she asks. She says she heard a stone hitting her house then peeped through the window and saw Sergent sprawled on her doorstep. "They hit him with a hammer until he fell down - he stood up but they hit him repeatedly until he could stand no more," she says.
But witnessing the murder is the least of Maduna's worries - she is scared Sergent's spirit will haunt her home and begged his family to conduct a ritual to cleanse it. "Before they leave, they must say to him: 'Now we are collecting your body and we are taking it back to Zimbabwe'," Maduna says. "I'm worried that his soul will roam around and cause bad luck."
A 22-year-old witness to the attack says Sergent's death is xenophobic and a local ANC leader has been fingered in the attack. "They [the attackers] said they wanted to rid our area of foreigners - and it hurts because I know him personally," she says. Sergent's brother-in-law Adam Chairi, 22, says the older man hated alcohol and kept to himself. "All he cared about were his five kids and wife he left in Zimbabwe," says Adam.
Source: The Zimbabwe Mail
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