Xenophobic Attacks Threaten South Africa’s Hosting of 2010 World Cup, Says Paper
May 19, 2008
South Africa should urgently address the problem of its current xenophobia attacks or risk playing into a trap by critics who want the country stripped of its hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a Zimbabwe state daily warned on Monday.
At least 13 black foreigners have been killed and 60 others injured in xenophobic attacks that have spread across South Africa since May 11.
More than 1,000 terror-stricken immigrants have sought refuge at police stations in Alexandra and Branley townships near Johannesburg after being forcibly evicted from their homes by black South Africans.
In an editorial Monday, the state-run Herald daily said the xenophobic attacks were sending the wrong message to the rest of the world about the security situation in that country and the South African government’s ability to contain the violence.
“South Africa is already encumbered by an albatross of criminal acts and muggings, the highest in the world, which some tried to use to get the World Cup moved to Australia. There is nothing to suggest that the anti-South Africa lobby has given up,” the daily said.
The Zimbabwean daily reminded South Africans of the assistance rendered to its fellow citizens by neighbouring countries during the war on apartheid.
“Many ANC (African National Congress) cadres found refuge in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and beyond, with many travelling the world on foreign passports; a fact the xenophobes should never forget,” the daily added.
Several Zimbabweans have been killed in the attacks that have also targeted Mozambicans and Congolese nationals.
Shops owned by foreigners have been looted in the latest attacks, according to press reports.
Source African Press Agency
Many of us watch in fear of family and friends in South Africa as news of Xenophobia in South Africa hits the international press.
As evidenced by the brain drain that has hit South Africa over the last few years, and the number of South Africans living in Europe it’s a sad fact that many South Africans themselves felt threatened by a sort of “Xenophobia” when they lived in their own country and decided to leave.
South Africa government should issue a statement on the security of foreign nationals not only for the sake of 2010 World Cup games but for the lives from now June 2008 and beyond 2010. The SADC and COMESA agreements are equally affected. SA government should not justify the xenophobic attacks by exploring similar incidences which happened or have heppened in other coutries. I am a Malawian and am deeply dissappointed with the xenophobic attacks on my brothers. Where did south african free during apartheid? Is a decade’s peace long enough to forget their plight and demonise the one who once provided refuge? When have south africans realised that the people from Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique…. are foreigners? Based on that, it is not wrong to suggest that we do not need SADC free trade agreement…it’s not possible because our countries will be full of foreigners who will robe of our jobs and settlement. This is the depth of the effect of SA xenopobic attacks. I therefore humbly request the SA government should convince Africans Malawi in particular that the attacks should be treated as a case before we talk of how it is going to compesate our people… they are landless, jodless…. it is like chasing the whites in Zimbabwe to go back to their homes which some of them have never visited or even know.
regards