President Jacob Zuma on Saturday pleaded with foreigners
to stay in South Africa as he cancelled a state visit to
Indonesia to deal with a wave of deadly xenophobic
violence at home.
Three weeks of escalating anti-foreigner violence in South
Africa have claimed at least six lives and forced more than
5,000 immigrants to seek refuge in makeshift camps.
The unrest, which began in the eastern port city of Durban
before spreading to other parts of the country, carries
echoes of the xenophobic riots that gripped South Africa in
2008 when 62 people were killed.
In the latest incident, police on Saturday said a foreigner
died of stab wounds in Alexandra, a township north of
Johannesburg. The impoverished area was the focus of
much of the day’s violence, with officers firing rubber
bullets to disperse looters.
More than 30 arrests were made overnight Saturday around
Johannesburg alone.
Under pressure to avoid a repeat of the 2008 bloodshed,
Zuma travelled to Durban to visit a camp for foreigners
displaced by the violence, but he faced a hostile reception
from the crowd, which yelled “go home, go home” and “too
late, too late”.
“As government, we’re not saying to you ‘go away’. It is not
every South African who is saying ‘go away’. It is a very
small number of people who say so,” Zuma said at
Chatsworth camp, where he presented a cheque of 50,000
rand ($4,100) to help the victims of xenophobic victims.
He vowed to end the unrest and sought to assure the crowd
there was a place for foreigners in South Africa. “Even
those who want to go home, they must know that when we
have stopped the violence they are welcome to come back,”
Zuma said.
The South African leader had been scheduled to fly to
Indonesia on Saturday, but he announced he was scrapping
the trip “to attend to matters at home relating to the attacks
on foreign nationals.”
The decision came as alarm grew within South Africa — and
from the United Nations and foreign capitals — over the
attacks.
Neighbouring Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique have
announced plans to evacuate their citizens.
Reflecting international concern, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees said most victims targeted “are
refugees and asylum seekers who were forced to leave
their countries due to war and persecution.”
– ‘Pray for peace’ –
The violence has been largely blamed on a speech last
month by King Goodwill Zwelithini, traditional leader of the
Zulus, in which he blamed foreigners for South Africa’s high
crime rate and said they must “take their bags and go”.
The king has since said his words were misinterpreted.
As the crisis raged, Zuma urged all churches to pray for
peace and friendship on Sunday.
“We know that the majority of our people believe in human
rights and peace and that they respect the dignity of all who
live in our country,” he said in a statement late Saturday.
“They know that where there are concerns and differences,
these should be resolved the South African way, through
dialogue, and not through violence and intimidation.”
The violence has sparked angry responses in other African
nations.
In Mozambique, a group of about 200 people on Friday
blockaded the southern Lebombo border with South Africa,
stoning South African vehicles.
In Zambia, a privately-owned radio station has stopped
playing South African music in protest against the
xenophobic attacks.
And in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, demonstrators
marched to the South African embassy to condemn what
they called the “senseless and gruesome slaughter” of
fellow Africans.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe also condemned the
violence on Saturday, expressing “a sense of shock and
disgust”.
South Africa already grappled with a wave of anti-foreigner
violence earlier this year. In January, foreign shopkeepers
in and around the vast township of Soweto, south of
Johannesburg, were forced to flee and six were killed as
looters rampaged through the area. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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