Ghanaian in South Africa Sleeping on the Streets After Business Was Attacked and Destroyed
- A Ghanaian salon owner lost everything in anti-immigrant attack and is now living on the streets with her son
- Adjei faced xenophobia despite her long-standing ties to South Africa, dating back to when she was a child
- Violence against African migrants has escalated, causing deaths and diplomatic tensions across the continent
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A 33-year-old Ghanaian is sleeping on the streets after suffering an attack on her business, robbing her of her livelihood.
Princess Adjei said that her hair salon in Durban was vandalised and looted during an anti-immigrant march on May 18.
Source: UGC
She told Reuters that despite living in South Africa since she was a toddler, even people she knew started demanding that she go 'home'.
Adjei did all her schooling in the country, has local friends and speaks Zulu, the lingua franca of this eastern port city, and it had rarely occurred to her that she was an outsider.
She is one of scores of victims of attacks on mostly African foreign nationals accused by an anti-immigration movement of being in South Africa illegally.
Many of them have legal papers and deep roots here.
Reuters' post on X indicated that Adjei had commented sorrowfully after taking stock of the damage to her shop, saying:
"They took everything."
Adjei said she spent over $3,000 renovating the salon in February, and the losses mean she has moved out of her apartment.
"Without the salon... I don't have money for rent."
She and her 14-year-old son now sleep next to 200 other migrants on the street.
They have set up camp outside the office of the Department of Home Affairs, hoping officials there will be able to confirm their residency status.
This was the third time she had experienced the xenophobia that periodically convulses South Africa.
The first was when she was bullied in school during protests in 2008 by classmates who had previously shown no interest in her nationality.
South African mistaken as foreigner killed
Meanwhile, a South African woman in Limpopo was pleading for financial help after her 19-year-old son, Nhlamulo Sambo, was fatally stabbed during xenophobic unrest on May 31.
The incident took place at Mossel Bay in the country's Western Cape province.
Briefly News reported that Sambo was a South African citizen from Giyani who was mistaken for a foreigner and targeted.
Source: Getty Images
Patricia Sambo, his mother, shared a desperate plea on social media, saying she could not afford to transport her son’s body from Mossel Bay back to Limpopo for burial.
She is unemployed and has been left scrambling to cover costs while grieving a child she never imagined burying this way.
Ghanaian stranded in South Africa cries
YEN.com.gh reported that a young Ghanaian in South Africa had cried to return to his home country with a wish to see his mother.
He indicated that he went to the airport when he learned that the government was arranging flights for expatriates to return home.
However, the man said that officials could not help him, and it was later disclosed that the date for departure had been changed.
Proofreading by Bruce Douglas, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
