By Lance Guma
20 July 2010
Tensions are running high in South Africa after 5 people were injured Monday evening in more xenophobia fuelled violence, in the KyaSands area of north-western Johannesburg. Some of those injured were Zimbabweans. According to media reports police had to use rubber bullets, helicopters and armoured vehicles to take control of the situation. At least 10 people were arrested as armed police moved from house to house.
Only last week similar violence broke out in the Western Cape with locals looting and burning shops belonging to foreigners. The reports immediately confirmed widely held fears that the end of the World Cup would re-ignite attacks on foreigners. South Africa has a population of about 49 million people and 10 percent of this figure is made up of foreigners, the majority being Zimbabweans fleeing political repression and economic hardships back home.
South Africa’s Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, is however accusing the media of exaggerating the problem claiming, ‘some of the reports, you feel it's by people who wish that those things happen.’ Mthethwa is adamant the attacks are actually acts of ‘criminality disguised as xenophobia’ and that the media might be fuelling ‘self-fulfilling prophecies’ through its reporting on the issue.
The leader of South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, offered a different perspective, telling journalists that they had agreed at a meeting on Friday ‘that xenophobia is real, that it's a real phenomenon that we have to deal with, that has opportunistic consequences as well. I don't think that we can dismiss xenophobia as purely the work of criminal elements.’
Meanwhile it’s reported that the Zimbabwean government is preparing for a sudden influx of people from South Africa by erecting tents at the border. The head of the Civil Protection Unit, Madzudzo Pawadyira, is quoted as saying they had put up three very big tents, acquired 10,000 blankets and 1,000 buckets and put in place similar measures at Plumtree on the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The MDC office in South Africa however condemned the setting up of the tents, advising its supporters running away from xenophobic attacks ‘not to enter ZANU PF snares disguised as helping centers.’ Spokesman Sibanengi Dube said people ‘should proceed straight home and shun any assistance from ZANU PF operatives pretending to be government officials.’ He said they were not convinced that ZANU PF functionaries had all of a sudden started caring for exiles.
Rogers Mudarikwa, the Organizing Secretary of the MDC in South Africa, also reminded their supporters that ‘in 2008 Zimbabweans running away from similar attacks in South Africa ended up being forced into ZANU PF militia camps after accepting government transport services to Zimbabwe.’
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