About 1,500 Zimbabwean migrants have fled their homes in a shantytown in rural South Africa, after tensions erupted with locals over competition for farm jobs, police said today.

South Africans on Tuesday physically prevented Zimbabweans workers from getting on to trucks taking them to jobs in the grapelands around De Doorns, about 140 kilometres northeast of Cape Town, said senior police superintendent Hendrik Olivier.

Fearing the incident could lead to further attacks, the Zimbabweans fled their shacks and turned to local authorities. Emergency services have set up a camp for the migrants at a local sports field, he said.

"We put up an internal displaced people camp at the sports field," he said. "We put up tents and toilets."
The tensions erupted over "the limited resources that are available in the rural areas, and also the limited work opportunities."

Many of the Zimbabweans had seasonal jobs tending grape vines, but South Africans accused them of taking away their work by agreeing to longer hours and lower wages.

The incident sparked sharp memories of the xenophobic violence that rocked the nation in May 2008, in which more than 60 people were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes - many of whom relocated to camps that have since closed.

Olivier said some of the Zimbabweans had lived in the area for up to three years. Some of their shacks were knocked down by angry neighbours, but many of the Zimbabweans were renting the shacks from South Africans, he added.

Millions of Zimbabweans have fled their country's political and economic turmoil, with many coming to neighbouring South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse.

source:AFP

photo:EPA/PEDRO SA DA BANDEIRA