Pretoria street mayhem
ANTI-IMMIGRANT MARCHERS CLASH WITH FOREIGNERS Police fire rubber bullets at close range at protesters lying on ground.
Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up violent clashes between local protesters and migrants at an anti-immigration march in Pretoria yesterday.
Shops and homes owned by foreigners have been looted and torched over the past two weeks, with some South Africans alleging that the properties were brothels and drug dens.
Attacks against foreigners have erupted regularly in recent years, fuelled by high unemployment and dire poverty.
Riot police in Pretoria formed lines to keep apart about 1 000 protesters as tensions rose between some South Africans and migrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Somalia and elsewhere.
“We support the police,” South African marcher Aysha Ali, 25, said.
“Nigerians are very bad, they are bringing drugs into our community. I support the protest.”
As police struggled to impose control, Mohammed Abdi, 31, from Somalia, said: “We are looking for peace. People say we foreigners are here to sell drugs? They can search our shops.”
Some officers shot rubber rounds at close range at protesters lying on the ground, while some demonstrators wielded rocks and pangas.
President Jacob Zuma condemned the latest wave of xenophobic unrest, saying that there had been “destruction of property directed at non-nationals”.
“Residents in some communities blame non-nationals for the escalating crimes, especially drug trafficking,” the Presidency said in a statement yesterday.
Zuma called on citizens not to use migrants as a scapegoat for the country’s widespread crime problems, but said the government would crack down on drug-dealing and illegal immigrants.
In the past week, more than 20 shops have been targeted in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria, while residents in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, attacked at least 12 houses.
“We have decided to not leave the house [during the march],” said Alain Bome, a 47-year-old from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been in SA for 14 years.
“We know very well there have been attacks. We are scared.”
The Nigerian government this week called for the African Union to step in to stop “xenophobic attacks” on its citizens in South Africa, claiming 20 Nigerians were killed last year.
South African authorities dismiss such numbers, saying many violent deaths in the country are due to criminal activity rather than anti-immigrant sentiment.
In 2008, SA experienced its worst bout of xenophobic violence, which left 62 people dead.
In 2015, at least seven people died in similar unrest in Johannesburg and Durban as African immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said this week that 35% of the labour force was unemployed or had given up looking for work. – AFP