Despite several appeals by South African President Jacob Zuma and other political leaders for calm, violence against foreigners still goes on in parts of South Africa on Thursday.
South Africans living and working in other African countries were prepared for reprisals on Friday as protests were reported in Mozambique, Malawi and Nigeria.
Not less than five people have been killed, thousands displaced and extensive property destroyed in the latest wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa, after a March 20 speech in which tribal Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini mentioned that foreigners should leave the country.
As the violence and killings spread from the eastern port city of Durban to Pietermaritzburg and the inland financial hub of Johannesburg, Zuma announced the deployment of South African National Defence Force troops.
Zuma said the SANDF would transfer 350 soldiers to work as immigration officers at border posts. “Furthermore, the SANDF has deployed military troops along the borderline in seven provinces to prevent border crime activities and illegal border crossings.”
Most of the targets in South Africa have been Mozambicans, Nigerians, Malawians, Zimbabweans, Somalis, and Congolese. An April 16 march against xenophobia in Durban, attended by up to 20,000 people, did little to stem the simmering tensions. Even-though there were scuffles when people opposed to foreigners tried to disrupt the march.
While delivering their speeches in the South African Parliament on April 16, none of the main political leaders mentioned Zwelithini’s inflammatory comments, as they fear his influence over the 11 million Zulus in the country could cost them votes at election time.
However, Corne Mulder, leader of the minuscule Freedom Front Plus party, called out Zuma, who is himself a Zulu, for not taking Zwelithini to task. In addition the South African National Defence Union on April 16 lodged a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission over Zwelithini’s remarks.
During his March 20 address in Pongola in rural KwaZulu-Natal, Zwelithini stated that: “We are requesting those who come from outside to please go back to their countries.”
He said the fact that other African countries that played a role in South Africa’s struggle for liberation “should not be used as an excuse to create a situation where foreigners are allowed to inconvenience locals.”
Zwelithini also mentioned that during South Africa’s liberation struggle, South Africans did not set up businesses in these other countries. Yet now nationals from these countries were setting up businesses in South Africa.
This speech touched on a common grievance among less privileged South Africans, who claims that foreigners are depriving them of jobs and business opportunities. For example, on Friday, The Times newspaper in Johannesburg reports that a resdient “hunting foreigners” and stoning cars in Actonville, east of Johannesburg, said: “These foreigners don’t pay taxes but they have jobs.”
The official South African unemployment rate hovers around 25 percent, rising to 36 percent when the definition is expanded to include those who have given up looking for work.
However, the unemployment rate in some South African rural areas can reach 80 percent, especially among the youth.
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