Xenophobia and its gory killings have never sat well with me even up till date- Dineo Mofammere, a South African movie star

' I never supported my people's deadly motives against Nigerians, I swear!'

                                            Story By ADAEZE AMOS

Let me cast your minds back to the time of xenophobia in South Africa when they were busy killing fellow African brothers for no just cause. And Nigerians were inclusive. Remember that time? This is not intended to open  old wounds please but there is a reason for casting your minds back. A South  African actress Dineo .Mofammere,   a mother of two, a businesswoman and a philanthropist is the reason for evoking the ugly memories of Xenophobia. Reason is she vowed that she would one day let the world how she felt and still feels about such killings. "When Nigerians were being killed in South Africa my country, I felt bad about such killings. Reason being that during the period of apartheid in my country, who didn't know that Nigerians helped South Africans to fight apartheid. And when they regained their freedom, the best way to pay them back was to slaughter them like animals? That was bad, very bad."

Another reason she felt bad and sad about killings of Nigerians in South Africa then was that she was in Nigeria at the time  those  killings were going on. "Oh my God! It  pained me. It has never sat well with me even up till date. I was prepared then  to grant a press interview so as  to talk against it and condemn it. But, no journalist came to me for that and I couldn't go to any of the media houses  for such a story because tempers were very high then and Nigerians at that time  were very angry and perhaps ready to attack any South African. So, I held my peace. But inside of me, I was dying. I never supported my people's deadly motives against Nigerians, I swear! Can you just imagine that I was in Nigeria in 2015 when it happened? Yes, I was right inside  the country of those that were innocently  slaughtered or butchered like animals  and  I was being treated like a queen here. I was welcomed, so welcomed that I was seen as one  of them, like a family so to say," she enthused.
When the killings continued, she couldn't keep her cool any longer. " I started sending  video messages on Facebook and Instagram about Africa being one. I also  started posting  pictures of me and my Nigerian brothers and sisters to my South African  people. You know pictures can speak volumes. I posted so many pictures to them so that they  could see how I and other South Africans were  loved in Nigeria. And for them to also know that not only were they putting our lives (I mean the Lives of South Africans in Nigeria and those in other countries ) in danger, but they were also degrading our country."
Want to know know how Dineo still feels about Nigerians? "Oh Nigerians  are the warmest, welcoming and hardworking people I know. I have stayed with them for a while. For instance during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, I was in Nigeria. So, I would say I've experienced Ebola and Coronavirus period with them. I came into Lagos to shoot a movie, and suddenly the lock down started. So, I'm trapped here sort of (she giggles).  During the lock down, I was busy sharing palliatives to single women in the neighbourhood where I'm residing in Lagos. That's my own little way giving back to humanity," she shrugs.
 Dineo is a South African act that is well known in her country and the reason for that is not far fetched. She has starred in so many movies such as  Jozihood, Bedrooms games, Newman Street, Jinxed, Lincoln's Clan, The Dragons, When Love Comes Calling, The Men's Club, Lincoln's Clan, Newman's Street,  The Men's Club to mention but a few.