Citizen & Argus: Xenophobia epidemic spreads

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The Citizen

Published: 18/05/2008 21:32:46

Xenophobia epidemic spreads

TLALANE TSHETLO

JOHANNESBURG – Xenophobic attacks spread to the East Rand at the weekend leaving two dead and hundreds displaced.

In Germiston foreigners were attacked at several informal settlements.

“They were attacked at the Makause, Dukathole, Marathon, and Extension 5 informal settlement.

“They were also attacked at the Extention 9 RDP houses,” said Germiston police spokesman Captain Steady Nawa.

At Dukathole informal settlement people looted shops suspected to belong to foreigners.

“We had to use rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, but no one was injured. Displaced foreigners were taken to the Primrose swimming pool for safety,” said Captain Nawa.

Other displaced foreigners were taken to the Brackendowns police station.

In Benoni 12 foreigners were injured in continuing xenophobic attacks.

Police yesterday said they believed the attacks started from the Actonville Hostel.

“On Friday night several shots were fired at the hostel but no one was injured. Hours later foreigners at the Emlotheni and Mandleni informal settlements were attacked,” said Benoni police spokesman Sergeant Robert Chauke.

At the Emlotheni informal settlement a foreign national was severely assaulted and his wife gang raped.

“A mob then went on a rampage, chasing away foreigners and stealing their property.

“Most foreigners have fled and there is no specific place where they have gone to,” said Sergeant Chauke.

At the Zulu-Sotho hostel in Katlehong two shacks and a car were burned.

“A butchery near the hostel was vandalised, and all the meat taken by the mob,” said Captain Ephraim Shezi.

Two people were also killed on Saturday night at the Mandela informal settlement in Katlehong.

“We don’t know what the motive for the killings is. No arrests have been made in connection with the killings, but we have arrested 29 people for public violence,” said Captain Mega Ndobe.

About 18 shacks belonging to foreigners were burnt down at the Sakhile informal settlement in Katlehong.

Unconfirmed reports were also received about attacks at the Ramaphosa and Joe Slovo informal settlements in Reiger Park.

http://www.internafrica.org/2008/05/foreigners-in-cape-fear-theyll-be-next.html

Cape Argues

Sunday, May 18, 2008
Foreigners in Cape fear they’ll be next

Foreign nationals in Cape Town now live in fear that they will be next after a string of attacks in Gauteng which left at least two people dead and hundreds displaced.

Xenophobic raids took place in Alexandra, Diepsloot, Tembisa and Thokoza last week. And the past few years have seen a spate of xenophobic attacks on foreigners, especially Somalis, in the Western Cape. The attacks on Somalis also often include robberies.

A Somali shopkeeper was shot dead in Durbanville on Friday and in March, Somali-owned shops were looted by locals. This led to 11 shop owners closing down their business and fleeing the area.

People Against Suffering Suppression Oppression and Poverty (Passop) spokesperson Braam Hanekom said what foreigners in Alexandra had experienced was appalling.

Hanekom went as far as comparing the treatment foreigners received in parts of South Africa to the treatment the Jews suffered in the early years of “Hitler’s rule in Germany”.

“They are hunted down, searched for their IDs and chased away. The state needs to take a fair share of blame as they are the ones who do not give the immigrants the necessary documents they need to live in this country.

“By not giving these immigrants the necessary documents, communities interpret that as if they are criminals. We’ve got a huge problem of thousands of immigrants not having documents to be in this country.”

He said he hoped the latest string of xenophobic attacks would not spread south, although he feared there was a good chance they would.

“I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen but it’s always a possibility when people see these actions occur. People will start to have an idea and I think we need to take it very seriously.”

Hanekom urged political parties to not only condemn the xenophobic attacks in press statements.

“We need these parties to spread the condemnations by word of mouth into their branches, who are the people on the ground.”

Shikuma Kati, an Angolan who has been staying in Philippi since 1995, said what he had seen on TV had left him shaken.

“What those people are doing is wrong, period. Why can’t people learn to do things in a proper way and not kill others?”

Kati said people should not give feeble reasons such as a lack of jobs as an excuse for their “barbaric, xenophobic behaviour”.

“When leaders of this country were being chased by the apartheid government to our countries and some studied abroad they never experienced the torture we are going through. Why are they doing this to us?”

Lucas Shimboneni, a Namibian has also stayed in Philippi since 1991 and said he has experienced first hand what has happened in Alexandra.

“During 94 and 97 we also encountered something like that here in Philippi. Our houses were burnt down and our property taken away,” Shimboneni said.

“What has happened there (Alexandra) is very bad. It still baffles me why people can’t see what they are doing to each other.”

Ivorian Traore Ishmail, a trader at a Cape Town taxi rank, believes what has happened in Gauteng has already spread around the country.

“It might not be happening in a violent form but people have always been discriminating against us. Here in Cape Town it is the same, as you cannot spend a day without arguing with somebody, and most of the time we just keep quiet.

“I never had a problem with a white person since I came here, but our own brothers and sisters treat us badly. I have a bad feeling and I expect something could happen to me anytime. No one is talking but you can sense something could happen here.”

Ishmail warned that tourists might be frightened off by the xenophobic attacks as the 2010 World Cup approaches.

“The world is watching every move we make and if they get all these negative messages about SA, we’ll be the ones losing out. It is a minority of South Africans who are doing this and I think, as a human being, there is no one who deserves to be treated like this.”

A Congolese, who only referred to himself as Mike, said the situation in Gauteng probably expressed what most South Africans felt about foreigners.

“They just did the action in Alexandra and we are left worried we might be next.”