The violence, which has seen some foreign nationals necklaced – a throwback to a horrific practice used during the apartheid era, when suspected police informants were killed by placing a burning tyre around their necks – has spread throughout Gauteng and into other provinces since it first broke out in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra 12 days ago.
Johannesburg’s mayor, Amos Masondo, has invited all foreign diplomatic missions to a meeting on 23 May, “to discuss xenophobic attitudes in Johannesburg”, a spokesperson for the Mozambican consulate told IRIN.
“Plus or minus 10 buses left on 21 May and there are about 10 buses leaving today for Mozambique. We are doing our best to take our people home,” the spokesperson said. About 1,200 people have been repatriated by the Mozambique government and many other Mozambique nationals were making their own way home.
The Mozambican daily newspaper, Noticias, reported that about 10,000 Mozambique nationals had fled South Africa since the violence began, but this did not include those without legal travel documents, which was thought would add thousands more to the number.
It is not just illegal immigrants that are being attacked, even those who are legally here in South Africa are being attacked.The consular spokesperson said the Mozambique government would provide transport for as long as there was a demand, as “it is not just illegal immigrants that are being attacked, even those who are legally here [in South Africa] are being attacked.”
Chris Mapanga, of the Zimbabwean consulate in Johannesburg, said his government was “organising voluntary repatriations and the work is in progress. We are at a very advanced stage.” He declined to reveal the numbers of those requesting repatriation or when the repatriations would begin, and what type of transport would be used.
“It is not like an instant lightning strike. Xenophobia starts at 1 p.m. and then the buses [for those wanting to be repatriated] leave at 1.30 p.m.,” he told IRIN.
Mapanga said research indicated that there were about 800,000 to one million Zimbabweans in South Africa; other estimates have put the number of people who have fled the eight-year recession at more than three million. Annual inflation in Zimbabwe is unofficially estimated at 1,000,000 percent, with severe shortages of food, fuel and energy.
Widespread reports of violence ahead of Zimbabwe’s second presidential poll on 27 June – scheduled after neither President Robert Mugabe, of the ZANU-PF party, nor opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai achieved the required 50 percent plus one vote majority – is also believed to have increased undocumented migration to South Africa.
The 29 March poll saw the ruling ZANU-PF party lose control of parliament for the first time since winning independence from Britain in 1980.
Xenophobic violence spreads
Outside the epicentre of xenophobic violence in Gauteng Province, in the last few days reports of further mayhem have come from KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Mpumalanga provinces. The government has announced that army resources would be available to police to try and end the violence.
Opposition parties in the South African parliament welcomed the decision, but criticised President Thabo Mbeki’s slow response. Democratic Alliance Chief Whip Ian Davidson said in a parliamentary debate on 22 May that the government had only agreed to deploy the army after 42 people had died, when his party had made such calls after the deaths of 12 people.
Xenophobia in South Africa was expected to be discussed during the seventh Nigeria/South Africa Bi-national Commission in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
Kingsley Mamabolo, head of the South African delegation to Abuja, reportedly said: “Of course, there will explanations and discussions about it [xenophobia], and the commission will have to find the best possible way to address the problem.”
The News Agency of Nigeria has reported that dozens of Nigerian-owned shops have been attacked in Johannesburg, while a Nigerian-owned tavern in the Durban township of Umbilo was attacked by a mob.
A few weeks before the xenophobic violence erupted, Nigerian authorities voiced concern their nationals were being targeted by criminals after arriving.
Post published in: News