WATCH | Man travels from Mpumalanga to PMB to settle debt with departing Malawian mechanic
Local resident Victor McKay had travelled from Mpumalanga, near Hammarsdale, not to say goodbye, but to keep a promise.
As 18 buses waited at Mayor’s Walk to carry hundreds of Malawian nationals back to their homeland, one farewell stood out among the crowd.
Local resident Victor McKay had travelled from Mpumalanga, near Hammarsdale, not to say goodbye, but to keep a promise.
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Clutching money he had long owed, McKay searched through the gathering until he found Mallana Moosa, the man who had kept his vehicles running for years.
Moosa has no bank account, and McKay travelled to place the payment directly into the hands of the mechanic, who had become more than just a tradesman to many in the Cinderella Park and Thembalihle communities.
“I promised him I would come and pay him. He’s a very humble guy and excellent at what he does. People would call him out to fix cars as far as Ixopo and Richmond,” McKay told Weekend Witness yesterday.
This is heartbreaking because we are losing good people simply because they are foreigners, whether they have documents or not.
Moosa admitted that he had lived in South Africa without legal documentation.
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“I know I don’t have papers. If I had been given an opportunity to regularise my stay, I would take it. But I guess it’s too late now,” Moosa said.
His greatest sorrow, he said, is not leaving South Africa, but leaving behind the life he spent more than 20 years building.
We had a good life in Thembalihle. We had friends. We worked hard. Now we are going back to Malawi with almost nothing. We have to start from scratch.
Moosa’s story is one of hundreds unfolding across KwaZulu-Natal, as growing anti-foreigner tensions continue to reshape communities.