Ernest Santos, 27, came to South Africa from Mozambique to make his fortune. Instead, after two years of working as an industrial painter, he is returning home with less than he arrived with. “There is nothing there, no work for us, but we don’t care. Maputo is home. At least we are safe there,” he told The Times, as he waited with dozens of others to board buses taking them back to Mozambique.

Mozambique declared a state of emergency yesterday and gave warning that the exodus was likely to worsen because thousands were still waiting in temporary camps to be transported back home.

Incredibly, Ernest and his friends consider themselves lucky. They are alive. “I have been here ten years. They have taken all my things – my television, cooker, fridge. I have lost everything I worked for,” Ferreira Mahlalala, 39, said.

More than 42 people, at least 8 of them Mozambicans, have been killed and about 17,000 have been displaced in 11 days of xenophobic violence in the poor South African townships.

President Mbeki reluctantly authorised the Army to assist police – a move severely denting the country’s reputation for stability and tolerance in a turbulent continent. About 200 soldiers helped the police in a series of dawn raids in central Johannesburg on Thursday but support has been limited in the townships.

The foreigners, mainly Mozambicans, Zimbabweans and Malawians, but also other Africans, tell familiar stories. Marauding gangs, armed with axes, knives and sticks, chased them from their shacks, stole their possessions, beat them and threatened to kill them. “They took all my things and told us to go. They said if we go back we will be killed,” said Justin Jozine, 24, a builder waiting for a bus to take him back to Mozambique.

The violence spread yesterday with gangs attacking immigrants in the sprawling shantytowns outside Cape Town.

More Zimbabweans were attacked in the northern province of Limpopo and it was reported that two Pakistani traders had been stabbed. There are fears that more unrest over the weekend could lead to violence among South Africans.

Poor South Africans blame foreigners for taking scarce jobs and adding to soaring crime rates. The trigger for the current violence appears to be the increasing numbers of people fleeing Zimbabwe. The number of Zimbabweans now believed to be in South Africa is estimated at between three and four million.

Many Zimbabweans say that they have nothing to go back to but many, despite the hardship back home, are still opting to leave. “I do not want to die in South Africa; I would rather go home and starve to death,” said Cephas Sithole, 35, who was attacked in the Alexandra township where the violence started.

The brutality of the violence, in which people were set ablaze in scenes reminiscent of the mob rule accompanying the fight against apartheid, has embarrassed the pro-business Government, which is accused of failing the poor, and has affected the economy.

The United Nations has condemned the xenophobia. Fifa, the governing football body, said that it expects the country to recover before it hosts the 2010 World Cup when visa restrictions on other African countries are supposed to be lifted. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, South Africa’s Deputy President, apologised for the suffering caused by the violence.

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