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South Africa: Burning the Welcome Mat
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
19 May 2008
Posted to the web 19 May 2008
Johannesburg
The death toll in a wave of attacks targeting foreigners around South Africa's main city of Johannesburg has reportedly risen to 22, with an estimated 6,000 people seeking shelter in police stations, churches and community centres.
Police spokesperson Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo was quoted in The Star newspaper as saying on Monday that the situation was calm in the townships of Alexandra, in northern Johannesburg, and Diepsloot, northwest of the city, where the attacks started last week.
However, the violence spread to Zandspruit, northwest of Johannesburg, and Tembisa, Primrose, Reiger Park and Thokoza, on the eastern perimeter of the city, as well as other working-class communities.
South African newspapers on Monday ran horrific images of people set alight by angry mobs who roamed townships during the weekend looking for foreigners and looting their shops and homes. In scenes reminiscent of anti-apartheid protest from the 1980s, the police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
In the Troyville area, just east of the central business district and historically a migrant enclave, shops were closed on Monday night and the usually busy streets were quiet. An estimated 2,000 people had taken refuge in the nearby Jeppe Street police station after violence at the weekend.
A police officer, who asked not to be named, told IRIN that he did not expect the violence to end anytime soon, and the station needed blankets and food to care for the foreign nationals - mainly Zimbabwean, Mozambican and Angolans - who were sheltering on the premises.
President Thabo Mbeki announced on Sunday that a panel had been set up to investigate the attacks, but the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), a constitutionally mandated watchdog, accused the government on Monday of failing to take the threat of xenophobia seriously.
SAHRC chief executive Tseliso Thipanyane was reported in newspapers as saying that the sudden outburst was the result of festering anger at poverty, a lack of resources, and the large influx of immigrants.
An estimated five million people from almost every country in Africa have migrated to South Africa; three million of these are thought to be Zimbabwean, but the Department of Home Affairs has no record of how many migrants might be undocumented.
They are perceived as taking jobs in an economy with an estimated unemployment rate of 40 percent, but in which there is also a serious skills shortage.
Not a new problem
The following chronology looks back at the problem of xenophobia since South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.
1994
• The Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) threatens to take "physical action" if the government fails to respond to the perceived crisis of undocumented migrants in South Africa.
• IFP leader and Minister of Home Affairs Mangosutho Buthelezi says in his first speech to parliament: "If we as South Africans are going to compete for scarce resources with millions of aliens who are pouring into South Africa, then we can bid goodbye to our Reconstruction and Development Programme."
• In December gangs of South Africans try to evict perceived "illegals" from Alexandra township, blaming them for increased crime, sexual attacks and unemployment. The campaign, lasting several weeks, is known as "Buyelekhaya" (Go back home).
1995
• A report by the Southern African Bishops' Conference concludes: "There is no doubt that there is a very high level of xenophobia in our country ... One of the main problems is that a variety of people have been lumped together under the title of 'illegal immigrants', and the whole situation of demonising immigrants is feeding the xenophobia phenomenon."
1997
• Defence Minister Joe Modise links the issue of undocumented migration to increased crime in a newspaper interview.
• In a speech to parliament, Home Affairs Minister Buthelezi claims "illegal aliens" cost South African taxpayers "billions of rands" each year.
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• A study co-authored by the Human Sciences Research Council and the Institute for Security Studies reports that 65 percent of South Africans support forced repatriation of undocumented migrants. White South Africans are found to be most hostile to migrants, with 93 percent expressing negative attitudes.
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When one group of people think for whatever reason the are surerior to another,they are RACISTS,and probably evolutioists as well.
This is a serious problem -crisis. I think, this what we call “xenophobia” I am not even sure if it a xenophobia anymore. This killing, beating and chasing our brothers and sisters is unacceptable to our country. We should think out of box!! I think in our country we have what we call those tribe who think they are so special in a way that they think other a human being is something else; we even saw it when other tribe are also under threat (this include Tsonga and Venda). I think it does not even need a politician to... [Read Full Text]
Black South Africans are not racists. It is unfortunate that the down trodden indigenous Azanians have no sense of security in their God given homeland. Worse still, there is no solution in sight from their political leaders. The American vote today is central to solutions that bring jobs home. The British have since last months toughened migration laws in terms of skilled labour force. Zimbabwe has taken all land and gave it to the marginalized blacks who are already in the process of learning farming business. Zimbabwe is making laws that put local companies and local employment a priority to... [Read Full Text]
Many Africans living abroad are ashamed to hear the kind of treatment other black African nationals are going thruogh in South Africa. REMEMBER DEAR SOUTH AFRICANS, SEVERAL AFRICAN COUNTRIES GAVE MUCH NEEDED MONIES WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN SPENT ON DEVELOPING THEIR COUNTRIES AND CREATING JOBS TO BETTER CONDITIONS FOR THEIR NATIONALS TO SUPPORT ANC FIGHT FOR YOUR LIBERATION. The entire continent of Africa joind the ANC one way or the other. This is your reward to those whose blood were sacrificed to see you free from your white masters who treated you as nothing.
It is unfortunate, very sad. People... [Read Full Text]
The whole world cried during apartheid time for Black African's in South Africa, now they gain their right and started to do what the white people were doing to them this is sad , people tend to forget their past so easily.
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