South Africa reels under anti-foreigner violence

[Praxius]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/20/africa-violence.html

Police and the governing African National Congress party in South Africa stepped up efforts Tuesday to quell a wave of violent attacks against foreigners that have left 24 people dead in recent days.

Migrant workers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other African countries are being targeted by mobs wielding machetes and clubs, police say. The attacks are fuelled by a wave of resentment against foreign workers whom locals believe are taking scarce jobs away from native-born South Africans.

President Thabo Mbeki has condemned the violence as "shameful and criminal" and directed police to take stern action.

Armed police are deployed in the affected areas, and migrants are being offered shelter and protection in police stations.

Mbeki is being criticized for not doing enough to prevent economic collapse in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where at least 60 per cent of the five million migrant workers in South Africa originate.

South Africa Tourism Minister Marthinius van Schalkwyk warned that the attacks could do even more harm to an economy already suffering from high unemployment by frightening away African tourists.

"Africans increasingly travel to South Africa as a holiday destination," van Schalkwyk said Tuesday, "and these attacks have the potential to certainly impact negatively on that market."
'A war zone'

Aid workers trying to help victims and get migrant workers under police protection are themselves coming under attack.

One of them, Imetus Soloman, spent the past three days dodging rubber bullets fired by riot police at rampaging mobs. He was trying to distribute food and water to besieged migrant families.

"It went crazy," Soloman said of his visit to the vast, largely black townships around Johannesburg, "When we went into the area, it was like a war zone. Police all over, fighting and shooting and all kinds of things."

A fruit seller who came from Burundi to South Africa said even before the attacks he felt threatened and barely made enough money to survive.

"We run from our country because of the war," he said, "Now here we are in South Africa. We thought it was a peace place to be, but it's not."

CBC's Bruce Edwards, who is in Johannesburg, said it's the worst violence in the country since the end of apartheid.

"Millions of immigrants, most from poor neighbouring countries, come here seeking a better life," Edwards said, "but with half of the country's own population still living in abject poverty, and the resources scarce, many fear this … may still get worse."

 

[tracy]

It's so sad. These are people with nothing except resentment and bitterness, fighting over table scraps...

 

[Praxius]

It's so sad. These are people with nothing except resentment and bitterness, fighting over table scraps...

I wouldn't exactly say that.... this could happen anywhere. When it comes to people in a mentioned country trying to make their own ends meet, but there are no jobs (Or very few) and then you have forigners coming in taking whatever jobs are left, many are left with no source of income/resources for themselves as well as their own families, and when a situation like this occurs, it can easily become very "primal" esspecially when your own government is not producing any solutions to the problem and the police forces are slacking on keeping people in order.

I'm not making excuses for them, but it is to be expected based on the information provided. An individual can make smart decisions, but a collective of desperate people can make some very stupid and very cruel decisions based on their own survival.

I imagine if there was plenty of jobs and resources to spread around, there wouldn't be as much "Bitterness and fighting over table scraps" ~ What they are fighting for may seem like table scraps to you, but to them, it's the thin line between survival and death.

Understanding the situation is the first step in understanding what is needed for a solution.

 

[tracy]

"I imagine if there was plenty of jobs and resources to spread around, there wouldn't be as much "Bitterness and fighting over table scraps" ~ What they are fighting for may seem like table scraps to you, but to them, it's the thin line between survival and death."


That's exactly my point. It's table scraps to anyone, but that's all there is to fight over. The real problem is that refugees often have nowhere to go other than places that are poor. The first world countries aren't going to absorb them all. So, to escape violence and starvation they have to go to a country ill equipped to take them in. Then they simply face more violence... I think a lot of the anger towards them comes from poor people who are already there struggling seeing them as a drain on their society, but there are stories from South Africa of rape being used against immigrant women in an effort to drive them out. That's not just about survival. That's barbaric and I simply have more faith in humanity than to say anybody in that situation would do it. Most people in South Africa aren't running around attacking foreigners.

Frankly I think the government of South Africa should have done more to prevent this in the first place. They are the region's most important power. Mbeki decided to be completely hands off while Zimbabwe went nuts. Now his country is facing the consequences and his people will suffer because of it.

 

[Praxius]

Ah, I figured you were going on about something else.... never mind

 

[amagqira]

"
That's exactly my point. It's table scraps to anyone, but that's all there is to fight over. The real problem is that refugees often have nowhere to go other than places that are poor. The first world countries aren't going to absorb them all. So, to escape violence and starvation they have to go to a country ill equipped to take them in. Then they simply face more violence... I think a lot of the anger towards them comes from poor people who are already there struggling seeing them as a drain on their society, but there are stories from South Africa of rape being used against immigrant women in an effort to drive them out. That's not just about survival. That's barbaric and I simply have more faith in humanity than to say anybody in that situation would do it. Most people in South Africa aren't running around attacking foreigners.

Frankly I think the government of South Africa should have done more to prevent this in the first place. They are the region's most important power. Mbeki decided to be completely hands off while Zimbabwe went nuts. Now his country is facing the consequences and his people will suffer because of it.

A very accurate summing up. It is not as though Mbeki could not have forseen this, there have been several isolated attacks on legal/illegal immigrants over the past 2-4 years, and he knew how many Zimbabweans have been pouring over the rather porous border, but he always insisted that comrade Bob of Zimbabwe be treated with sympathy and understanding. And now the chickens have come home to roost........

 

[Praxius]

Update: (Video Included on Link)

S Africa troops sent onto streets
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415177.stm

South African troops have been deployed for the first time in an effort to stop attacks on foreigners that have left 42 dead and forced thousands to flee.


Soldiers backed police in early morning raids at three hostels in Johannesburg, arresting 28 people and seizing drugs, arms and ammunition.

This is the first time soldiers have been used to stamp out unrest in South Africa since the 1994 end of apartheid.

Some 15,000 people have sought shelter from the attacks.

Buses burnt

Attacks have been reported in North-West province for the first time, after violence in Durban in recent days.

There were also attacks in the north-eastern Mpumalanga province.

"Two buses were burnt last night and one Mozambican guy was shot. He is in hospital," said police spokeswoman Sibongile Nkosi.

Police in Johannesburg say the situation there has become calmer.
The medium-sized mining company DRDGold said two of its workers killed on Tuesday - one of whom was South African - had died in violence in the Ramaphosa township near Johannesburg.


The workers were from the East Rand proprietary mine where the company said more than half of the miners on Thursday's day shift had failed to report for work. Almost a third of the mine's semi-skilled workers are foreign.

Miners' union officials have been discussing the disruption with representatives of the Mozambican workforce.

Meanwhile, Mozambique has provided buses to take about 9,000 people home.

The BBC's Karen Allen saw chaotic scenes and scuffles at a Johannesburg police station, as Mozambicans tried to scramble on board buses to take them home.

Leonardo Boby, deputy national director of migration, said about 3,000 people had returned to Mozambique each day this week.

Some Zimbabweans are also going home, preferring to risk the violence there than stay in South Africa.

One Zimbabwean woman told the BBC she had decided to return home from Johannesburg after seeing a series of xenophobic attacks.

The 36-year-old woman said she had seen an armed gang douse a Mozambican immigrant with petrol and throw him into his burning shack.

"The screams of the burning Mozambican still haunt me. When I close my eyes to try to sleep, I see the man screaming for help. But no-one helps him," she said.

"I have never seen such barbarism."

'Orchestrated'

The director general of South Africa's National Intelligence Agency, Manala Manzini, said on Thursday that the attacks were unleashed by movements that supported the apartheid government.

The unnamed groups had delivered weapons to hostels in the townships, he said.
Correspondents say he is believed to be referring to the Inkatha Freedom Party, whose members are mainly Zulus. It has denied any role in the violence


Mr Manzini's comments were echoed by the minister of intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, who said there were groups that had what he called their own political agenda.

"There was organisation... we have names of people who called meetings," he said.

The secretary general of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Kgalema Motlanthe, has said that many of the immigrants were able to get jobs in South Africa because they were better qualified than locals, whose education was disrupted by apartheid.

He said this was a cause of envy from South Africans, who needed to acquire the skills that would enable them to make a living.
The violence began on 11 May in a township north of Johannesburg, before spreading to the city and the surrounding region.