MPs nix x-word for attacks on foreigners
A PARLIAMENTARY committee investigating the April outbreak of xenophobia has characterised the deaths and destruction as mere criminality.
The attacks on foreigners, in which seven people were killed, scores injured and displaced, and foreign-owned businesses ransacked, drew international condemnation.
Nigeria recalled its ambassador, and the AU condemned the xenophobic actions of South Africans.
Still, the committee insists that the violence that gripped mostly KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng was “not xenophobic”.
“If you look at the dictionary, it defines xenophobia as a deep hatred of something that is foreign. I refuse to believe that South Africans are xenophobic and that we walk around with a deep hatred,” said MP Ruth Bhengu, who, along with MP Tekoetsile Motlashuping, chaired the committee that met in Gauteng this week.
The committee did not, as initially planned, visit sites where the violence occurred — such as Jeppestown Hostel, Snake Park and Alexandra’s street vendors — but was briefed instead at police stations and a community hall.
Bhengu said the fact that community members helped to apprehend suspects and that food was taken during the looting was evidence that the violence was criminal and not xenophobic. Her views were echoed by Motlashuping yesterday when he said none of the incidents in Alexandra in April was xenophobic.
Three of the people killed in the violence were South African.
Mozambican national Emmanuel Josias (also known as Emmanuel Sithole) was stabbed in Alexandra at the height of the xenophobic attacks. Four men have been charged with his murder.
After a briefing by the police at an Alexandra station, Motlashuping said: “It was four boys here in Alexandra that went looking for cigarettes. The four boys did not want to pay, and as a result of them not wanting to pay, the violence then erupted.”
Community members who addressed the committee spoke about poverty and lack of opportunities, and foreigners being willing to work for a pittance. This led to hostility towards foreigners, they said.
MEMORIES: Alex Marcus at the container shop in which he and his brother were locked before it was set alight in a xenophobic attack back to hospital without seeing Tessema’s body, which was flown to Ethiopia.
When he was well enough to be discharged, Alex spent some time with a relative in the city because he was not sure how he would be received by the community in Umlazi.
Although calm has returned, danger lurks in the area.
Sindane said political leaders had not called community meetings to resettle displaced foreigners, as they had promised.
But ANC ward councillor Sithenjwa Nyawose disputed this, saying that community meetings had been held where foreigners were assured of a safe return.
Alex may have returned to Umlazi, but other foreigners who were displaced by the violence are too scared to go back. Returning to their countries of birth — the option chosen by hundreds from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi — is not possible for those from places such as Burundi, where unrest continues.
Some of the displaced foreigners who have not gone back to their original communities or did not want to leave the temporary camp in Chatsworth were arrested last weekend. On Monday they were able set up another makeshift camp on a farm owned by KwaZulu-Natal couple Andrew and Rae Wartnaby. Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za