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Xenophobic violence in South Africa, which has caused 24 deaths and forced 13,000 people to flee their homes, has spread from Johannesburg to the volatile Zulu heartland, prompting President Thabo Mbeki to deploy the army on the streets for the first time since the end of apartheid.
The presidential decision was announced after police said a mob of up to 150 armed men attacked a bar owned by Nigerians in the suburb of Umbilo on Tuesday night, injuring six people, one of whom was hit with an axe. Yesterday 100 people returned to Umbilo, demanding foreigners leave the KwaZulu-Natal province.
Police said most protesters lived at a men's hostel and were armed with stones and bottles. The upsurge in violence against illegal immigrants in the province came as attacks in the Johannesburg area appeared to subside. For 11 days, refugees from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and other African countries were targeted by marauding gangs of armed men demanding they return home.
Immigrants were beaten, shot at, stabbed, raped and burnt as the groups rampaged through squatter camps and townships looking for victims. At one stage, they reached the city's central business district, and more than 300 people were arrested.
Photographs in South African newspapers showed dead, injured and frightened refugees, prompting much soul-searching and finger-pointing about the causes of the violence.
Protesters claim the estimated five million illegal immigrants in South Africa are taking their jobs, get preferential housing, force down wages and commit crime. But police say the violence is just criminality and thuggery. Bus and coach stations have also been reportedly busy and workers at Johannesburg's main railway station say trains to Zimbabwe and Mozambique have been full as refugees flee home.
Zhaheer Kassim, a ticket office clerk, told a newspaper that armed gangs burst into the station this week looking for foreigners in their final minutes in Johannesburg. "There were people running up and down with spades and hammers looking for foreign people. Some of the staff went home early. The numbers of people on the trains has been like Christmas and New Year put together."
Security guards drove the gangs away. After the violence in Durban yesterday, the province's safety and security minister, Bheki Cele, a member of the ruling ANC, accused the mainly Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party of being behind the attacks.
He said: "There was a meeting of the IFP branch in Dalton yesterday [Tuesday] and I know it was them who went straight from there to the tavern and raided the place and smashed the cars."There have long been tensions between the two parties with members fighting bloody battles in the run-up to the first free, all-party elections in 1994.
Yesterday the IFP's provincial chairman, Mntomuhle Khawula, denied the claims saying they were "irresponsible and immature". He added: "Cele has tried to use this as a political scoring point by insinuating that the IFP is responsible for the attacks."Essop Pahad, a senior aide to President Mbeki, hinted at exploitation by right-wing groups without naming names.
"We need to understand that xenophobia has historically been used by right-wing populist movements to mobilise particularly the lumpen proletariat against minority groups in society," he told an International Media Forum meeting in Johannesburg.
"Political mobilisation on the basis of xenophobia poses grave threats to progressive forces in our society and to our democracy."President Mbeki acted on a request from police to supply troops and equipment in order to quell the violence as calls grew for the army to be mobilised.
In Cape Town, residents in several townships have set up special committees involving police, councillors and community representatives to thwart potential xenophobic violence. Some Somali shopkeepers say they have received threatening letters telling them to leave, but detectives say they are not linked to attacks on immigrants.
The violence in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces prompted delegates from Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon and Burkina Faso to boycott an African women's conference in Cape Town. Organisers said 90 of the 250 delegates did not attend, citing xenophobia.
The Tourism Business Council of South Africa said the trouble was damaging the industry. With the World Cup just two years away, Fifa added its worries, saying it was saddened by the loss of life and general violence.
A spokeswoman, Delia Fisher, added: "We are obviously concerned about this issue and hope that the Fifa World Cup and its unifying power will help to overcome these divisions."
- INDEPENDENT
