H17524
12 die in South Africa anti-foreigner violence
Massive inflation, food and fuel shortages have sent increasing numbers of Zimbabweans to South Africa…in search of business and basic commodities.
Urban poverty and scarce resources are leading to frustration and desperation in Johannesburg’s poor suburbs, while the government seem more concerned about their international image.
Also see: South Africa to open borders for 2010
[Posted By NatterJack]Republished from Associated Press
Emmerson Ziso fled hunger and repression in neighboring Zimbabwe, but now he wants to go back. Even his violent, chaotic homeland seems a haven compared to Johannesburg, where weekend attacks on foreigners left at least 12 dead.
“Most of the Zimbabweans want to leave. It is better at home than here,” said the former teacher who was chased out of his home by a mob early Sunday.
“It’s spreading like wildfire and the police and the army can’t control it,” Ziso said, as he tried to help register about 500 people who sought refuge at the police station in Johannesburg’s Cleveland area.
It was a scene repeated in other poor suburbs around the city. Angry residents accused foreigners of taking scarce jobs and housing, many of them Zimbabweans who had fled their own country’s economic collapse.
President Thabo Mbeki said Sunday that he would set up a panel of experts to investigate. African National Congress President Jacob Zuma, who is likely to succeed Mbeki next year, condemned the attacks.
“We cannot allow South Africa to be famous for xenophobia,” Zuma told a conference in Pretoria.
Posted by NatterJack
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South African activists condemn attacks on migrant workers – A statement from South Africa’s Anti-Privatization Forum.
Also, a statement from NEHAWU, “the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union” in South Africa, on the violence.
Anti-Immigrant Violence Continues in S. Africa The violence continued to rage on Monday, as police fired rubber bullets and made arrests to try to quell the violence in and around Johannesburg, and said the death toll had reached 22, The Associated Press reported…Thousands of panicked foreigners — many of them Zimbabweans who have fled their own country’s economic collapse — have now deserted their ramshackle dwellings and tin-walled squatter hovels to take refuge in churches and police stations.
Alex mayhem aggravated by government foreign policy shortcomings The inadequate response to the refugee or illegal immigrant problem is aggravated by a foreign policy shortcoming, namely Pretoria’s failure to acknowledge, fully, that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe and that it has repercussions beyond its own borders…If it did acknowledge the crisis fully, it might by now have mobilised the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN relief agencies fully to help address the problem…Perhaps the government could have received UN funding to address some of the needs of the Zimbabweans. (Peter Fabricius, Independent Online)
Struggle for meagre resources fuels terror in the townships Tensions between South Africans and migrant workers have been brewing for some time in Johannesburg’s townships…Nowhere was this more palpable than in places such as Tembisa, Alexandra and Thembelihle. Five years ago, these townships were far away from the luxuries of South Africa’s most famous township, Soweto. Thembelihle, to the south-west of the city, had no paved roads, sanitation or regular electricity. And it wasn’t about to get any. (Felicity Carus, the Guardian)
Deadly haven for refugees of Zimbabwe The night-time rampages have turned police stations in several townships in the Johannesburg area into virtual refugee camps, with makeshift tents, portable toilets and clusters of terrified people, many displaying wounds from the attacks. Many have vowed never to return to their looted houses but have few options when their own nations are experiencing a dearth of economic opportunities, or, in the case of Zimbabwe, a devastating political crisis and inflation that has topped 165,000 per cent. (Celean Jacobsen, Sydney Morning Herald)
Rand on fire A warning that the ongoing xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa has the potential of sparking a serious civil war, has been sounded by foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma…Speaking at the African National Congress Women’s League conference in Durban at the weekend, Dlamini-Zuma said South Africans needed to stop attacks on foreigners to prevent a full scale civil war. (Independent Online)
Anti-foreigner violence is natural. It’s shocking how jews have flooded the USA and Europe with illegal immigrants to destroy society, culture, law and order, democracy, education, religion, health care and civilisation.
It’s good to see some fighting back against illegal immigrants. In the UK millions want to see immigrants driven into the sea (where they belong).
Chi, Don’t you have some Fourth Reich to start somewhere?