Call to stop raids on foreign nationals

THE Right2Know coalition has called on government to stop police raids as part of the state’s anti-xenophobia campaign‚ branding them as state-coordinated xenophobia.

The raids began two weeks ago following a spate of xenophobic attacks in the country which resulted in the death of seven people.

Police began the raids on xenophobic “hot spots”‚ including Jeppe Hostel in Johannesburg.

However‚ they continued into residential areas and resulted in arrests of more than 400 people‚ mostly criminals and foreign nationals found to be in the country illegally.

The coalition called on President Jacob Zuma to stop the raids‚ which it says have become an excuse for police harassment and brutality on foreign nationals.

More than 400 people were reportedly arrested in a raid in the Johannesburg CBD yesterday, which included a raid on the Central Methodist Church – a site long a refuge for desperate and poor foreign refugees.

After a raid on the Thembelihle informal settlement near Lenasia‚ south of Johannesburg‚ residents reported that the police stole from them and brutally assaulted them during that raid.

“The SAPS’ official explanation for the raids has been that it was performed in order to target ‘criminal act in the area‚” said the coalition’s Gauteng coordinator Julie Reid.

“However‚ this then calls into question the presence of the army and the home affairs officials during the raids.

“It is clear President Zuma is using the context of the xenophobic attacks and the presence of ‘illegal immigrants’ in poor communities as an excuse to send in the police‚ the army and home affairs officials to target foreign nationals‚ while officials utter the words ‘criminal activity’ as a guise for what are really acts of xenophobia enacted by the government.”

She said the measures by government‚ SAPS and army only served to exacerbate xenophobic tensions within the country and do nothing to solve them. — The Times