‘We will deal with xenophobia” – SA govt

At least 70 people were reported dead last year, while thousands were displaced, their shacks razed to the ground and property valued at millions of rands looted or destroyed. South Africans attacked foreigners from fellow African countries, whom they accused of competing with them for state resources, committing crime and stealing their jobs and women.

After a years lull, in which various government departments, artists and civil rights organisations had tried to preach the gospel of tolerance and co-existence, some foreign nationals, especially those living in the poorest suburbs in the countrys busiest Gauteng province, had reported renewed threats of attacks by locals, who say that they will strike again after the World Cup, which ends on July 11.

However, police spokesman for Gauteng Province, Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini, this week told The Zimbabwean that the lawmen would not allow that to happen. We have heard about that ourselves, but I would like to assure the public that no such thing will be allowed to happen and we will ensure that calm prevails, said Dlamini.

Criminals will always threaten, but we urge the public to report those that go around doing that because they are threat to the peace that we are there to preserve. Last time the violence happened because we were not alerted to it, but still we managed to end it and this time, we are ready for any such happenings and such criminals will meet the full wrath of the law, regardless of who they are.

Despite the police assurances, some Zimbabweans told our correspondent this week that they have already started sending their most valuable property to their home country, as they do not want a repeat of the losses they accrued last year.

Last years xenophobic attacks began on May 19 in Johannesburgs sprawling suburb of Alexandra, grew to Diepsloot, before they swept through the whole of Gauteng. Some foreigners returned to their home countries and vowed not to return to South Africa again, while others lived in shelters for months, before they were forcibly removed and told to re-integrate to the local communities.

Meanwhile the African Diaspora Forum (ADF) last week held a commemoration event for those who died during last year’s xenophobic attacks. Addressing scores of people gathered at the candle light ceremony in Yeoville Recreation Centre, the Chairman of the African Diaspora Forum, Marc Gbaffou, lamented those who lost their lives and properties during that heinous time. He urged Africans to shun division and segregation. He also challenged people to speak as one.

It is with painful recognition that we remember our fellow brothers and sisters who lost their lives and properties during that time. Traumatic events transpired during that period. We strongly recognise the current good socialism amongst Africans, we emphasise you to promote and maintain such spirit of humanism amongst your selves. You mustnt allow any means of racial or tribal discrimination as it kills and annihilates communities, we are all Africans and we must stand by one word of Unity, he added.

Speaking at the same event Yeoville ward Council Nomaswazi Nohalala, bemoaned lack of trust and respect amongst Africans, and challenged them to inter-mingle and identify worrying spectacles in communities as they work towards unifying themselves and bringing out a better developed crime free societies.

People are forgetting who are they and where they are coming from. As Africans we must practice our cultures to its fullest as it will help in maintaining respect amongst ourselves. We must come together to know how we must build a prosperous country, and eliminate worrying problems in our communities.

We must also abolish crime related issues in our communities as they create an unstable societies and lead to what happened here in 2008, we dont want history to repeat itself, let us fight crime harshly and have a better community, she said.