‘SA xenophobia under control’

Livingstone Marufu
Several African political parties will this week meet in South Africa to discuss issues relating to xenophobia and its impact on foreigners. This comes after African governments, including Zimbabwe’s, engaged South Africa over continued attacks on foreigners in that country.
Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Joey Bimha told The Sunday Mail that though the situation had calmed down, there was need for full engagement.
“We will meet next week, at a political level, where officials from different political parties will find solutions to xenophobic attacks in future … But the South African government itself is very active, and their police have been very responsive.
“We will agree that attacking foreigners is not the right thing to do; instead, we should come up with solutions to see how we can help the situation. The situation is under control, however. It has stabilised a bit. Even those South African political heavy weights who delivered inflammatory statements withdrew their statements in order to move forward in a peaceful manner,” Ambassador Bimha said.
Last month, some South Africans in Tshwane and Johannesburg attacked immigrants, saying they were behind crime and prostitution. Foreign-owned shops were looted and several arrests were made.
South Africa’s former Mr President Thabo Mbeki condemned the attacks, saying: “As South Africans, we should never forget the enormous sacrifices that were made by the people of Africa to help us achieve our liberation.
“We cannot now behave in a manner that treats other Africans, who are no residents in our country, as enemies or unwelcome guests.
“Many of us know that our country faces many socio-economic challenges such as poverty and unemployment. Not even one of these problems can or will be solved by attacking fellow Africans who have joined us as migrants.”
South Africa’s Interior Minister Malusi Gigaba called for calm after the latest round of violence.
“I want to call on all South Africans to distance themselves from rhetoric or xenophobic actions,” Gigaba told a press conference on Thursday.
In 2000, over 15 xenophobic attacks occurred in South Africa, leaving many casualties, mostly black immigrants. Similar attacks were witnessed in 2008, claiming 62 lives.
Victims of other attacks in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017 again mainly comprised Africans.