The other side of South Africa: World Cup Reflections

Unlike the schools and offices in South Africa the Guma Guma gangs
along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe don’t stop because
of a sporting event.

As thousands of foreign fans flock to the football stadiums of South
Africa, along the border another influx of foreigners is also entering
the country. About 350 Zimbabweans file for asylum at the Department
of Home Affairs in Musina every day, hundreds more cross illegally and
are never registered. These foreigners are not greeted with bright
yellow and green flags and vuvuzelas, instead they face humiliation,
armed attacks and a pattern of sexual violence that is systematic and
designed to traumatise already vulnerable people.

“It is a crisis. We are seeing a pattern,” says Mikael Lepaih, head of
mission for Medicins San Frontieres. Since January of this year 143
rape survivors have sought medical treatment at Medicins San
Frontieres clinics in Musina.

“These numbers are only those that register,” says Lepaih. “It is
thought that the actual number of rapes along the border is much
higher.”

The accounts collected by MSF are unnervingly similar: Guma Guma gangs
charge a small fee to guide groups of Zimbabweans across the border.
At some point while they cross the river and navigate the three layers
of barbed wire that separate Zimbabwe from South Africa, the people
guiding them, or other gang members turn on the Zimbabweans, strip
them, steal their money and force them to have sex with the other
Zimbabweans. The Guma Guma’s themselves both men and women, often rape
everyone in the group. Condoms are never used.

“It leads to questions as to whether the gangs are using HIV as a
weapon,” says Lepaih. It is so common for brothers to be forced at gun or knife point to rape their sisters or mothers that people now deny being related, hoping this might protect them from the horror of forced incest. And although Zimbabweans hear the horror stories, the lack of economic chances in Zimbabwe leave people with little choice.

That's people like Grace, who is 16 years old. She was raped the day before the opening ceremony of the World Cup.

It was midday when she pushed her way through the three lines of barbed fences and waded through the crocodile filled Limpopo river to reach South Africa. The six men were waiting for her and the three other women she traveled with. The two-year old child she cares for started screaming. The men shouted that they would kill her if the child didn't shut up. They held a gun to his head and said they would kill him if she didn't consent. Every single one of the women traveling with Grace was striped and then raped under the glaring afternoon sun. Before they left the Guma Guma tied the women up. They told Grace she was a "clever one" and so didn't deserve her clothes - she was left naked under a tree by the side of the road. She walked into Musina town hours later with nothing but a green towel, handed to her by a kind woman at the border. She says she thinks she is cursed, because she was raped once before.

Grace came to South Africa to work in the farms that line the porous border. She talks quickly and self-aassuredly. Her eyes flick down towards the two year old boy to comfort him between her story. This is not her first time to make the perilous journey. She says it will not be her last. After she has harvested the oranges and avocados that are sold in America and Europe - earning just 800 rand a month, she will work her way back past the Guma Guma gangs to her home in Zimbabwe. She has two younger sisters and a brother waiting for money for school fees.

She has lied to the Department of Home Affairs in order to register for asylum, as children are currently not being registered by the Department. Her story, alongside other women's testimonies at the vastly under-funded shelters illustrate the vulnerabilities and the systematic nature, not only of the rapes themselves, but also of the neglect by authorities along the border. Almost nobody from Zimbabwe received refugee status.

While South Africans scream at the fan parks of Johannesburg, thrilled that the World Cup is in Africa, it is clear that this is just one part of the story of South Africa today.