South Africa: Mbeki Condemns 'Shameful' Attacks

20 May 2008
allAfrica.com

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has condemned as "shameful and criminal" the recent attacks on foreign nationals living in the country.

Mbeki said in a statement that he was confident the police would soon make "significant breakthroughs in getting to the root of this anarchy."

His statement followed reports that 22 people have been killed and about 6,000 – many of them Zimbabweans –forced from their homes

in outbreaks of xenophobic violence concentrated in areas around Johannesburg.

"We dare not lose sight of the fundamental reality of our interdependence as the people of Africa," Mbeki said. "We are bound together with other Africans by history, culture, economics and, above all, by destiny. South Africa is not and will never be an island separate from the rest of the continent.

"Citizens from other countries on the African continent and beyond are as human as we are and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity."

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