immigration - South Africa - Thabo Mbeki - violence - Zimbabwe

Army, police team up to quell xenophobic violence

Thursday 22 May 2008

The South African army teamed up with police to help control the sprawling violence against immigrants, as mobs of armed youths target Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Nigerians. A. Duval-Smith reports from the scene.

Thursday 22 May 2008

By AFP

The South African army mobilised Thursday to support the country's embattled police force in a bid to quell a wave of violence against immigrants that has claimed 42 lives and displaced 16,000.

"Whenever the South African police require our support they will inform us through the command channels and we will deploy whenever they need us," spokesman for the defence forces, General Kwena Mangope, told AFP.

He said soldiers and helicopters were ready to help police control the unrest, which has seen mobs of armed youths purge poor areas around Johannesburg of foreigners.

Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Nigerians have been targeted in the violence, which spread outside of the Johannesburg region for the first time on Tuesday to neighbouring provinces, raising fears of a national catastrophe.

The situation appeared to be calming on Thursday in the hotspot of Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, but incidents were reported for the first time in the North West.

Spokesman for North West police, Brian Dlamini, said 49 people had been arrested on Wednesday night for looting and burning shops belonging to foreigners.

"They were party to a group that vandalised shops belonging to foreigners in the area," he said.

The death toll from the 10 days of violence, which began in a poor township area of Johannesburg before spreading to the inner city and outlying slums, nearly doubled on Tuesday to reach 42, according to new police figures.

An estimated 16,000 people have been displaced, with many taking shelter at police stations, community centres and temporary refugee camps set up by humanitarian groups.

Foreigners in South Africa, many of whom have fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, are being blamed for sky-high rates of crime in South Africa as well as depriving locals of jobs.

The unofficial unemployment rate in South Africa is believed to be about 40 percent.

More than 3,000 Mozambicans have since fled South Africa and returned home, Mozambican state media reported Wednesday.

In northeastern Mpumalanga province, police said there had again been incidents on Wednesday night but that the situation had been calmer than the night before, when businesses owned mainly by Somalis had been looted.

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

As well as calling in the army, there are signs that police are cracking down on community leaders accused of fomenting the violence in some areas.

Police said Wednesday they had arrested four leaders in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, on charges of incitement.

The secretary general of the ruling African National Congress party, Kgalema Motlanthe, who is tipped as a possible presidential candidate, laid the blame for the violence on the poor living conditions in slum areas on Thursday.

"Limited public amenities and resources are at the core at this. When you are living in squalid conditions it needs one incident to spark violence," he told a media forum in Johannesburg.

He admitted that immigrants to South Africa, particularly Zimbaweans and Mozambicans, were often better qualified than South Africans because of the legacy of apartheid in South Africa.

He spoke of an "envy from South African sisters and brothers who did not have the opportunity to acquire this education or skills."

"We need to address the young generation without skills in order to enable them to make a living," he said.