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S Africa apologises for violence

May 24 2008

S Africa apologises for violence

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By Agencies

Police and the army have moved to quell the violence spreading across the country [AFP]
South Africa's deputy president has apologised for a growing wave of violence against foreigners in his country that has spread to Cape Town, the country's second-largest city.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's comments on Friday came as thousands of immigrants sought to return to their home countries to escape the attacks.

"We are very much concerned and apologise for all the inconveniences that the incidents have caused," she said during a trip to Nigeria.

"We reject the notion that some of the people who are living in South Africa who are not South Africans can be blamed for the problems that we have."

Twelve days of violence against foreigners in South Africa has led to the deaths of at least 42 people and driven more than 25,000 from their homes.

At an African Union meeting in Tanzania, heads of state expressed "shock" at the deadly attacks on immigrants in South Africa, Jakaya Kikwete, the current AU chairman, said.

Economic crisis

Foreigners in South Africa, many of whom have come from Zimbabwe to escape their country's economic crisis, are being blamed for South Africa's high crime rate and for depriving locals of jobs.

Mozambique announced on Friday that 10,000 of its citizens had fled home in the past week and more were expected to follow.

Oldermiro Baloi, Mozambique's foreign minister, denied reports that his country had imposed a state of emergency, but said it was setting up an "emergency mechanism" to deal with the thousands of its citizens who were fleeing the attacks and returning home.

Violence spreads

Although violence in Johannesburg appeared to have been contained by police and the army on Friday, police reported attacks on foreigners for the first time in the coastal city of Cape Town and elsewhere.

Cape Town, in the Western Cape, is a major draw for tourists and had previously been spared the mob violence seen elsewhere.

Police said mobs attacked Somalis and Zimbabweans in Cape Town on Friday, looting their homes and shops.

Hundreds of African migrants were moved from a squatter camp near the city, while Somali-owned shops were also looted in Knysna, a resort town on the southwestern coast.

Thousands of foreigners have fled the violence in South Africa [AFP]

The new outbreaks came as the UN refugee agency increased its estimate of the number of displaced people to 17,000.

The UNHCR said that "a very large percentage" of these were Zimbabweans.

Police reported pockets of overnight unrest in Durban in the KwaZulu Natal region, where an unidentified foreigner was shot, and in North West province where two Pakistanis were stabbed.

Northern-most Limpopo province also saw problems for the first time overnight when a Mozambican man was stabbed and 11 people were arrested, according to local police.

Violence against foreigners has now been reported in seven of the country's nine provinces: Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu Natal, North West, and the Western Cape.