A South African woman has taken refuge among more than 700 displaced foreign nationals at a refugee camp, after she was attacked and threatened with rape for dating a Zimbabwean man.

Nokuthula Mabaso said she was attacked while visiting her boyfriend Elias Chauke in Makause informal settlement in Germiston, East Rand, on Wednesday night.

Mabaso, who hails from Harrismith in Free State, lives in the squatter camp with her parents.

She and her friend visited Chauke after news broke out that foreigners were being driven out of the area.

"I went to his shack and could not find him. A group of Zulu- speaking men arrived and kicked down the door. They asked me where my boyfriend and other foreigners were and I told them I did not know.

"They asked me why I dated a foreigner when there were many South African men in the squatter camp and I replied that I love Elias. They then assaulted and robbed me of my cellphone, forcing me to reveal where foreigners had fled to.

"They kept on asking us what do we want from foreigners. One of them threatened to rape us and was stopped by others. I looked for my boyfriend all over until I found him here on Friday night," said Mabaso.

She is among scores of displaced foreigners staying in 38 temporary tents near Primrose police station after they were forcefully evacuated from their shacks during last week's xenophobic attacks.

Yesterday, scores of people in the camps were seen queueing for food, others at a mobile clinic for medication, some basking in the sun, men and women doing their washing, feeding young ones, and children running around in the camp.

The group slept on the pavement outside the police station until the Ekurhuleni municipality provided them with tents, water, electricity, security, sanitation, food and a mobile clinic.

Women and children occupied their own tents while men slept in theirs alone.

They told Sowetan that their shacks were ransacked and robbed by angry mobs.

Some pleaded with the government to provide them with transport back home.

Zimbabwean national Happy Molosta has been in South Africa for seven years and said he did not want to die in a foreign country and wanted to go back home.

"I do not have money for transport. I do not want to die here. I am not safe in this country. I am afraid to go to work because I could be attacked," he said.

Rose Manuel from Mozambique said she did not want to go back home and pleaded for peace.

Manuel, a hawker, wants to continue selling her wares to feed her family back home.

Another Mozambican national, Francisco Mashaba, is also prepared to continue staying in the area.

Mashaba said he and his wife sneaked back to Makause informal settlement daily to check their shack has not been demolished.

He claimed that the mob stole his clothes and a few items from his shack when they were attacked on Wednesday night.

Ekurhuleni mayoral spokesman Zweli Dlamini said the displaced foreign nationals would be kept there until calm has been restored in the area.

"We wish to reintegrate them back to their communities. We cannot determine how long we will keep them. We do hope by the end of next week they can go back to their communities."

ntwagaes@sowetan.co.za