The Adonis Musati Project
Adonis Musati aged 23, used to be a police officer in eastern Zimbabwe . He worked hard and made a good living. Due to the economic crisis that has devastated Zimbabwe he was forced to move to South Africa illegally to look for work in order to support his family.
He spent a month living outside the Home Affairs Office in Cape Town . He was trying to get a work permit so that he could look for work. He reportedly had nothing to eat and was sleeping in a cardboard box. On Friday, 2nd November 2007 he collapsed and died. The autopsy showed that the cause of death was starvation.
This tragedy sent a ripple of sympathy flowing through the Cape and people donated food and clothes to the refugees still living outside the Home Affairs Office. "It is a disgrace that someone should die of hunger in one of South Africa 's richest cities," said Mr Hanekom, the leading activist for the refugees living outside the Home Affairs Office.
Even more shocking is that his family had to find out about his death via the internet, the authorities did not have the decency to inform the family before releasing the details to the media.
This flow of sympathy subsided and the Adonis Musati Organization is the only organisation that has carried on supporting these refugees, feeding them everyday and providing them with clothing and other essentials.
The refugees still do not have a shelter outside the Home Affairs Office and so are forced to sleep on the pavement. If they leave this area, they are arrested by the police and deported back to the countries they have fled. The refugees come from an array of African countries that are mostly ripped apart by varying crises. They come out of desperation to save their families and when they get here they are hungry and homeless and surrounded by hostile people who accuse them of being criminals and stealing their jobs.
The Adonis Musati Foundation is operating with scarce resources and relies on the good will of people. Their main goal is to find a place for the refugees to have shelter every night, especially as winter is about to descend on the Cape .
Behind every refugee living outside the Home Affairs Office, t here are 4 or 5 or people, usually old people and children, waiting to be saved by the money they will send back home once they have found jobs. In this way, donations to the Adonis Musati Foundation are not just helping the refugees in Cape Town , but also the people left behind in their home countries.
With these donations we can give the refugees some clean decent clothes to wear and a full stomach. They will then have their basic needs met and feel the confidence to go and look for a job. They will also have the knowledge that somebody cares for them and that people from across the world want to help them, and this gives them hope.
Watch a recent (2-part) video update on the Adonis Musati Project on YouTube.
Click here to see pictures taken exclusively for Vimba courtesy of Dylan Culhane.
