adminDURBAN. — A tit-for-tat xenophobic war could erupt across sub-Saharan Africa if the government acted on the wishes of King Goodwill Zwelithini and deported foreigners living and working in South Africa. On Tuesday, at a memorial service in Durban for Noel Beya Dinshistia, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, his countrymen warned that xenophobia in South Africa placed South Africans living in other African countries at risk.
Dinshistia was set alight and killed after he took a job as a bouncer at a local nightclub.
Justine Michael, who was among the hundreds of people, mostly Congolese, who attended the service held at the Gospel for All Nations Ministry at the Point, said xenophobia was making life in South African untenable.
“If the king is serious that foreigners must go back to their countries, they (the government) must be prepared to collect all South Africans from our country.
“There are South Africans who own mining companies in Lubumbashi. Others are working for companies such as Vodacom there, and live peacefully while we are suffering here in this country. But, if we are chased out of this country, we will have to do the same with South Africans back home.”
The president of the Durban branch of the Association of the Congolese, Shako Kuminga, asked The Mercury not to talk to people at the service for fear they would criticise the government or offend South Africans. “We don’t want trouble,” he said. — The Mercury.
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