JOHANNESBURG Some South African and Zimbabwean civil rights groups in Johannesburg have joined hands in their efforts to counter reported looming attacks on foreign nationals by South Africans, threatened to begin soon after the soccer World Cup, which ends this Sunday. (Pictured:
Fears abound that some South Africans, especially those in the countrys slums in Diepsloot, Alexandra and Thembiso in Johannesburg, Soshanguve in Pretoria and Khayelitsha and Gugulethu in the coastal city of Cape Town, will attack migrants from fellow African countries soon after the worlds biggest soccer showpiece. South Africas ruling African National Congress (ANC) party last week dismissed as both untrue and disingenuous reports of the looming xenophobic attacks, which resulted in at least 62 deaths, thousands of displacements and the destruction millions of rands worth of property, but the civil rights groups said this week that they were not taking any chances.
A spokesman for the civil rights groups this week told ***The Zimbabwean that they will, towards the end of this month, hold a festival meant to be part of their grand plan to kick out the scourge of xenophobia, an upshot of the notion wildly held by most poor South Africans that foreigners are the main cause of their problems. The festival, to be held at the Johannesburg stadium on July 25, will try and foster a spirit of togetherness and co-existence between Africans, regardless of their different nationalities and race.
The festival will have a panel of speakers selected from among some respected politicians and religious leaders, said Philani Ndebele, a spokesman for the groups. We will also have other activities like poetry and music by various groups both local and foreign. Ndebele added that the event, to begin at 1pm, will culminate in a soccer match between Zimbabwean Premier Soccer League giants Highlanders and South African First Division side Jomo Cosmos, which is slated for 3pm on the same day.
The game, initially planned by Braamfontein-based humanitarian organisation the Southern African Womens Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA), has since been changed from the Kick-out xenophobia campaign to Ubuntu derby. Ubuntu (Humanity), coined in South Africa, is meant to foster tolerance of one another to create a united country, hence its recent adoption by the civil rights groups.
Among other groups that have embraced the Ubuntu campaign are the Action Support Centre (ASC), Population International SA, City of Johannesburg, MICA Brand Solutions, RNB Business Solutions, Soweto TV, SABC, Talk Radio 702, Tru FM and the South African Red Cross Society, which have all formed a task team to organise for the event. We will end the program of the day with the soccer match because our main theme is give xenophobia a red card and that is what the festival is all about, said Ndebele.
Post published in: News