Starved to death: migrant's tragic story highlights plight of Zimbabwean refugees

A Zimbabwean job-seeker has died of starvation in Cape Town, in a case that has brought home the suffering faced by millions forced to flee their homeland in search of the often elusive greener pastures in neighbouring countries.

Adonis Musati, 23, worked as a police officer in eastern Zimbabwe until recently before joining the great trek of those fleeing economic hardships and political persecution to settle mostly in South Africa.

He collapsed and died of hunger close to the Home Affairs Refugee Centre where he had been trying to get a temporary asylum permit to enable him to live and work in Cape Town. Like many desperate Zimbabweans, Mr Musati had reportedly been sleeping in a cardboard box near the centre for a whole month during which he had been trying to get the permit.

Fellow Zimbabweans who said they had queued with Mr Musati for several weeks as he tried to get the work permit told the Cape Times he had starved to death after failing to get anything to eat for two weeks.

Oliver Kubikwa, the spokesman of the Zimbabwe Political Victims Association, which tries to help stranded Zimbabweans who have fled persecution, said a temporary asylum permit was as difficult to get as panning for gold and diamonds in the Thames.

"There are no words to describe how much of a special commodity this document is," said Mr Kubikwa last night. "Thousands of our brothers queue daily at home affairs offices but only very few can get it."

With thousands of Zimbabweans streaming into South Africa daily as their country's economy collapses, with 8,000 per cent inflation and an unemployment rate of 85 percent under President Robert Mugabe, the South African Home Affairs refugee centres are overwhelmed.

Mr Kubikwa said that apart from Zimbabweans fleeing political persecution, thousands of economic refugees also lay claim to the Asylum Seekers Temporary Permit or Section 22 permit because it is the only document that allows them to stay legally in South Africa and in theory to get employment.

The courts ruled in favour of the right of refugees to get jobs in South Africa after human rights lawyers challenged the law that forbid refugees to access employment in 2003.

But in reality the situation on the ground was different because employers and many other institutions did not recognise the asylum permits, preferring instead to employ those with official identity documents.

This resulted in Zimbabweans being subjected to what Mr Kubikwa called slave labour by unscrupulous South Africa employers since they cannot access the ID books and have to get anything that comes their way for survival.

"At least this guy (Mr Musati) is lucky in that he will have his name in the newspapers tomorrow.

We have several Zimbabweans living in enormous hardships in South Africa and dying quietly without being noticed by anyone," said Mr Kubikwa, whose association collects food, clothes and blankets from churches and other well wishers to help struggling Zimbabweans.

"They are turned away at hospitals because they don't have local IDs and don't qualify for free health-care. They have no access to social grants or any basic facilities. They live and die in silence."

Mr Musati had left his job with the Zimbabwean police to seek a job in Cape Town to feed his parents, sister, three brothers and identical twin back home. Thousands of police and army officers in Zimbabwe have deserted their posts and fled to neighbouring South Africa to seek jobs as security guards. Others end up being recruited by organised crime syndicates.

Mr Musati's cousin Ivy Dhliwayo complained that they had only heard of his death through a story on the internet and not from any official communication.

"We have former teachers, nurses and all manner of professionals sleeping under bridges because they cannot access employment here," said Mr Kubikwa. "The best solution to end the humanitarian crisis involving Zimbabweans here is to halt the influx by ending the appalling mis-governance in our country. If only South Africa could help in that regard."

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki is mediating in Zimbabwe to try and ensure free and fair elections next year. But the International Bar Association and other human rights groups say there is little to suggest that Mr Mugabe will ensure fair treatment.

The opposition complains of the continued beatings and murders of its activists while Mr Mugabe continues to cling to power at all costs.