Linda Ensor
16 May 2008
Cape Town — The cabinet has decided to urgently establish an interdepartmental task team to investigate the causes of the attacks on foreigners in Alexandra township and elsewhere.
Cabinet says the attacks could have been instigated "by elements bent on taking advantage of the genuine fears of communities for narrow political ends".
A national indaba is also planned to discuss xenophobia and the National Assembly is due to debate the issue today.
In the meantime, government spokesman Themba Maseko said yesterday that law enforcement agencies would use the full force of the law to ensure that no further violence took place.
The situation in Diepsloot, Soweto, was also being closely monitored, he said . Maseko said the task team would investigate the causes of the attacks and make recommendations about the action needed to prevent their recurrence.
Convened by the home affairs department, the task team would include the departments of safety and security, social development, health and education, and the Presidency.
"The cabinet condemns these acts of violence in the strongest possible terms and calls on our communities to be vigilant and to avoid being manipulated by provocateurs who seek to exploit people's fears and concerns," Maseko said.
"We are going through a period of heightened urbanisation, coupled with high unemployment and an increase in the numbers of immigrants.
"These conditions create a fertile environ-ment for people who are bent on creating havoc and chaos and they are taking advantage of this situation."
The aim of these people, he said , could be to discredit the government and create mayhem.
"Any suggestion that poor service delivery and rising cost of living is to blame for these attacks must be rejected with the contempt it deserves.
"These attacks represent a dangerous tendency that is foreign to our history and consciousness. For many decades, South Africans have lived side by side with foreign nationals with no acts of violence."
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