‘I miss working’: migrants speak about life after leaving South Africa

It has been a little over a month since thousands of foreigners were forced out of South Africa, causing disruptions to their lives.

Many were forced to remove their children from school mid-year and abandon their sources of income.

Sunday Times caught up with three foreigners from different countries, who share their daily struggles.

Enock Msiska, a 24-year-old Malawian who lived for just under three years in Pretoria, said he is happy to be with his family, but misses having the financial independence that allowed him to provide for his wife and their two-year-old daughter.

Although he had no formal employment in South Africa as he was in the country illegally, he said the little he made from gardening and washing cars enabled him to provide for his family and gave them financial security.

“I would send R300 every Sunday to my family from my part-time jobs. That R300 when converted to kwacha is a lot,” he said.

He said that now that he is back at his home village of Mzuzu, he has no income and has had to depend on his parents.

“The time I was there, I was sending something home. They were enjoying it, but now I don’t have anything to do,” he said.

He left South Africa in July through a repatriation process organised by the Malawian government.

Msiska said he became worried about his safety following the events surrounding the June 30 protests .

“My parents were calling me every day. They asked me to come back home. I also saw that it is better to go home,” Msiska said.

Msiska said he would consider returning to South Africa if he could obtain the necessary documents and find work.

For Mozambican migrant Armando Mazivila, the decision to leave South Africa came after years of struggling with police checks and demands for documents.

Mazivila had been living in Tembisa since 2004 and earned a living installing tiles.