DURBAN: Ethiopian refugee Helana Wolde locked his home and watched on television as thousands of angry demonstrators marched through South Africa this week calling for foreigners like him to leave.
His wife and their three South African-born children were terrified, he said in the shop in downtown Durban where he sells coffee and lentils.
But after leaving Ethiopia 21 years ago to escape political persecution, he does not see going back as an option.
While thousands of immigrants packed up and left South Africa ahead of the June 30 protests, many more feel their best option is to stay, even though the country has turned hostile.
“I have no place, no property, no family” in Ethiopia, said Wolde, adding his brothers there had been jailed. He reopened his shop, which unlike others wasn’t looted, the morning after the protest and was hoping for the best.
