A video on social media grimly showed Isakwisa Atupele Mwamasage’s last breath, a 39-year-old Tanzanian kicking his legs as two South African police officers pinned him to the floor, and no sooner than he wet his pants did he stop moving. His place and time of death have been disputed.
The onlookers said ‘Ras Isa’, as he was known by his friends, died on the scene, right next to where he set up his roadside hustle as a shoe cobbler. The police would later take his lifeless body and claim he died in the hospital after spending time behind bars.
His death is reminiscent of the death of an African American with a white police officer’s knee on his neck. This incident sparked anti-racism and Black Lives Matter protests in various American cities.
But unlike in the American case, this was a Black African man killed by Black African policemen. Ironically, it is in this country that Tanzanians died alongside native South Africans as they were fighting for their independence.
His death was not a separate individual case; throughout this year, social media groups belonging to Tanzanians living in South Africa have continuously announced deaths of their fellow countrymen, whose crime was to look for better lives outside their country’s borders. Even after Ras Isa’s demise, debates have raged on social media, speculating about what he did for a living.
The people knew him as a cobbler, but police said he was selling drugs, and after seeing him behave suspiciously, they approached him. That’s when he swallowed the drugs to hide the evidence.
But the questions remained: does the small amount of drugs he allegedly swallowed warrant death? Speaking to Mr Mohammed Msangi, a Tanzanian sailor who resides in KwaZulu-Natal, he said, In general, no one is immune to the violence in South Africa; all foreigners from other African countries are targeted, and even South Africans are affected by the wave of violence in the country. “Zimbabweans and Congolese are among the worst targeted communities; I think Tanzanians are fourth,” Mr Msangi said.
He further elaborated on the difference in lifestyle between Tanzania and the country he has called home for years now. He said, with the exception of academia, most young Tanzanians going to South Africa are going there knowing there are no jobs for them to do; they have no skill set or educational qualifications to join formal job sectors.
So as soon as they get to the country, they are absorbed into gangs and delve into illegal activities, from petty drug trade to pushing sachets of cannabis just to survive and settle in. The young Tanzanians in such a quick fortune, unfortunately, graduate from thieves to hardened criminals.
“It’s like stealing has been formalised as a regular job,” he said. They risk it all, and if they meet untimely death by the bullet, life goes on; it fazes no one.
More young people will keep doing the same thing that ended their colleague’s life. Most Africans living in South Africa illegally are accustomed to the growing animosity towards them.
Seeking refuge with the police force is not an option; Mr Msangi is all too familiar with the look of contempt they receive from the law enforcers. He narrated how, just a few weeks ago, a Tanzanian named Rajabu was stabbed to death by his South African wife in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and the wife was just briefly held at the police station and let go.
Life is cheap; all you have to do is survive the night. “Another Tanzanian, Mr Likizo, was stabbed by a fellow Tanzanian while fighting for a corner in the street.
Each wanted to put their goods for sale,” he said. While one would think the police force would be on the hunt for the assailant, Mr Msangi said that is never the case; all the killer has to do is move to another place and carry on with his life; the police will not bother to look for him.
“It’s like you can kill someone in Mbezi and move to Kariakoo and live your best life,” he elaborated. These fights break out, fighting for a corner, because in some cases, this is where they sell their drugs, he said.
“They sell batik and other stuff, but under the table, they sell illicit substances,” he added. The Tanzanian community in South Africa is still traumatised by the killing of Ras Isa.
The police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi, promised an autopsy to determine what caused his death. Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile said the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) will be thorough with the investigation.
But Mr Isakwisa’s body has already been flown and buried in his hometown, Mbeya, Tanzania. While the world seems to have forgotten him, the videos of his heartbroken family weeping in church while saying their final goodbyes are a clear reminder of the faces and turmoil the violence has caused.
These are people, not just statistics. These are sons whose mothers grieve.
Lives shattered and dreams obliterated. Neither the South African government nor our embassy in Pretoria has explained in detail the recent deaths of these Tanzanians.
But Mr Msangi might understand why: “Our embassy knows some of these young Tanzanians are involved in illegal activities; hence, they just turn a blind eye,” he said. Whether Mr Isakwisa was a drug peddler, as insinuated by the Western Cape police in their case report, or he was simply a shoe cobbler, as his neighbours attested, I hardly see the South African government taking much time on it.
The Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs of East African Cooperation has not even batted an eye. This is just another story with shock value that will fade into the background soon enough.
The Tanzanian media, on the other hand, would sensationalise morbid news rather than dig deeper. The bold headline ‘A Tanzanian has been killed in South Africa’ gets more clicks than ‘a petty thief murdered’; whether these young boys are criminals or not, every Tanzanian life should hold some value, and the right to life is universal and not based on your bank balance or lack of it.
“Death is everywhere in South Africa, especially in the African communities,” Mr Msangi said. “No one wants us here, so if we are murdered, the killers go unpunished,” he added.
Mr Mohammed has posted on his Facebook page too many Tanzanians who have died in South Africa; he can’t keep count of how many. Just recently, Mr Steven Bico Mwambeta was gunned down in Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal.
Another case that he is sure will go unsolved. Humans have been habitual nomads, migrating continuously since the dawn of our species.
We are now obsessed with the borders. The very borders in Africa came as a result of the Europeans’ scramble to divide the continent.
The “Bondeni” dream has already turned into a nightmare and a gravesite, but who is to tell the youth whose unemployment in Tanzania is so dire that they have no choice but to risk it all? On social media, Tanzanians are urging their fellow countrymen to retreat and return home, but as a man, a growling stomach and dreams of a fancy life before growing old will always precede any logic and instinct to heed danger. The best we can do is start addressing the elephant in the room, call a spade a spade, and admit we have a problem that has been there for a decade, which is a right start.
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