South African anti-immigrant attacks, which claimed at least 42 lives since May 11, spread to Cape Town and North West province, forcing foreigners to seek shelter at police stations and sports grounds.
Attacks on immigrants were reported in 10 areas around Cape Town today, including the sprawling townships of Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain, said Jeremy Michaels, spokesman for Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool. The provincial government isn't considering calling for troops to help the police, he added.
While Zimbabweans, driven south by a decade of political violence and economic recession in their homeland, bear the brunt of attacks, smaller South African ethnic groups are also being targeted. Some shanty-town residents see Zimbabwean immigrants, numbering about 3 million, and other Africans in the country as rivals for jobs and housing.
``There is no doubt that overcrowding and poverty has a hand to play in how people will react when they feel hard done by,'' Gwede Mantashe, general-secretary of the ruling African National Congress, said in the party's online newsletter today. ``There is no room for this behavior in our country.''
South Africa, with a population of 48.5 million, has a shortfall of 2.4 million houses and one in four South Africans doesn't have a job.
Xenophobic violence in Johannesburg has forced at least 20,000 people, including Mozambicans and Somalis, to seek refuge at police stations and community halls, while more than 400 people have been arrested. The attacks started in the city's northern township of Alexandra on May 11.
`It's War'
``It's war I tell you; it's South Africa versus Maputo,'' Wandile Langa, a 20-year-old South African, told the Mail & Guardian, referring to the capital of Mozambique. Langa told the Johannesburg-based newspaper that he roams the streets of the Ramaphosa shanty town, southeast of South Africa's biggest city, trying to identify foreigners.
``We just ask them Zulu words that any South African knows,'' Langa said. ``If they get it wrong, we hit them.''
Foreign-owned shops were looted at Du Noon shanty town in Cape Town and several people injured after locals threw stones and bottles, Western Cape police spokesman Billy Jones said by phone from the city today. More than 400 foreigners are seeking refuge at Killarney horse racing track.
In North West three people were stabbed as mobs looted shops and burned cars in sporadic incidents in shanty towns across the province, Superintendent Lesego Metsi said by phone from Potchefstroom.
Stabbings
One of two Pakistanis stabbed in the Kokosi township, near the mining town of Fochville, last night is still in hospital while a shop belonging to a Mozambican was razed, Metsi said. At least 31 Mozambicans and 34 Somalis were given shelter at a sports stadium and four arrests were made, he added.
At Mothutlung township near Brits, more than 200 South Africans looted shops owned by Mozambicans and Somalis, while in nearby Lethlabile, 12 shops owned by Zimbabweans were ransacked, Metsi said. Thirty foreigners are seeking refuge at a police station in Brits and 15 people were arrested.
``There are a lot of incidents that flare up sporadically,'' Metsi said. ``We are stretching our resources.''
In Ipelegeng settlement near Schweizer Reneke, four people were arrested for stabbing someone in the head and spraying a South African with pepper spray because she worked for a person from Bangladesh, Metsi said.
Troops Deployed
A battalion of 850 to 900 soldiers is on standby to help police if called upon, General Kwena Mangope said in an interview from Pretoria today.
Violence in Johannesburg eased after the army was deployed at George Goch in the south of the city, police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said in an interview today. A shack was burnt down in Primrose, east of the city, while a shop belonging to Zimbabweans in Germiston, also in the east, was looted.
Police in Mpumalanga, east of Johannesburg, are stepping up patrols in townships across the province this weekend after arresting 62 people aged between 17 and 26 for attacks on foreigners this week, said Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi.
In Limpopo, which borders Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana, 11 people will be charged for attempted murder, armed robbery and malicious damage to property for attacking homes rented by foreigners and stabbing a Mozambican in Mohlalaetsi, Superintendent Ronel Otto said.
Shelter is being provided to 34 people from Zimbabwe, 24 Ethiopia and 23 from Mozambique at a police station in the area, Otto said.
In South Africa's third-biggest city Durban, five foreigners were beaten, the South African Press Association reported.
The Mozambican government is working with South African officials to help citizens who want to return home and find solutions to end the attacks, President Armando Guebuza told reporters in the northern province of Cabo Delgago yesterday.
South Africa's Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka apologized to victims of the violence when she visited the Nigerian capital, Abuja, today.
``The acts over the last few weeks are nothing else but criminal and we will not allow them to destabilize the country and our relations with the citizens of all other countries,'' Mlambo-Ngcuka said. ``I want to apologize to those who have been affected.''
- Bloomberg
Attacks on immigrants were reported in 10 areas around Cape Town today, including the sprawling townships of Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain, said Jeremy Michaels, spokesman for Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool. The provincial government isn't considering calling for troops to help the police, he added.
While Zimbabweans, driven south by a decade of political violence and economic recession in their homeland, bear the brunt of attacks, smaller South African ethnic groups are also being targeted. Some shanty-town residents see Zimbabwean immigrants, numbering about 3 million, and other Africans in the country as rivals for jobs and housing.
``There is no doubt that overcrowding and poverty has a hand to play in how people will react when they feel hard done by,'' Gwede Mantashe, general-secretary of the ruling African National Congress, said in the party's online newsletter today. ``There is no room for this behavior in our country.''
South Africa, with a population of 48.5 million, has a shortfall of 2.4 million houses and one in four South Africans doesn't have a job.
Xenophobic violence in Johannesburg has forced at least 20,000 people, including Mozambicans and Somalis, to seek refuge at police stations and community halls, while more than 400 people have been arrested. The attacks started in the city's northern township of Alexandra on May 11.
`It's War'
``It's war I tell you; it's South Africa versus Maputo,'' Wandile Langa, a 20-year-old South African, told the Mail & Guardian, referring to the capital of Mozambique. Langa told the Johannesburg-based newspaper that he roams the streets of the Ramaphosa shanty town, southeast of South Africa's biggest city, trying to identify foreigners.
``We just ask them Zulu words that any South African knows,'' Langa said. ``If they get it wrong, we hit them.''
Foreign-owned shops were looted at Du Noon shanty town in Cape Town and several people injured after locals threw stones and bottles, Western Cape police spokesman Billy Jones said by phone from the city today. More than 400 foreigners are seeking refuge at Killarney horse racing track.
In North West three people were stabbed as mobs looted shops and burned cars in sporadic incidents in shanty towns across the province, Superintendent Lesego Metsi said by phone from Potchefstroom.
Stabbings
One of two Pakistanis stabbed in the Kokosi township, near the mining town of Fochville, last night is still in hospital while a shop belonging to a Mozambican was razed, Metsi said. At least 31 Mozambicans and 34 Somalis were given shelter at a sports stadium and four arrests were made, he added.
At Mothutlung township near Brits, more than 200 South Africans looted shops owned by Mozambicans and Somalis, while in nearby Lethlabile, 12 shops owned by Zimbabweans were ransacked, Metsi said. Thirty foreigners are seeking refuge at a police station in Brits and 15 people were arrested.
``There are a lot of incidents that flare up sporadically,'' Metsi said. ``We are stretching our resources.''
In Ipelegeng settlement near Schweizer Reneke, four people were arrested for stabbing someone in the head and spraying a South African with pepper spray because she worked for a person from Bangladesh, Metsi said.
Troops Deployed
A battalion of 850 to 900 soldiers is on standby to help police if called upon, General Kwena Mangope said in an interview from Pretoria today.
Violence in Johannesburg eased after the army was deployed at George Goch in the south of the city, police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said in an interview today. A shack was burnt down in Primrose, east of the city, while a shop belonging to Zimbabweans in Germiston, also in the east, was looted.
Police in Mpumalanga, east of Johannesburg, are stepping up patrols in townships across the province this weekend after arresting 62 people aged between 17 and 26 for attacks on foreigners this week, said Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi.
In Limpopo, which borders Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana, 11 people will be charged for attempted murder, armed robbery and malicious damage to property for attacking homes rented by foreigners and stabbing a Mozambican in Mohlalaetsi, Superintendent Ronel Otto said.
Shelter is being provided to 34 people from Zimbabwe, 24 Ethiopia and 23 from Mozambique at a police station in the area, Otto said.
In South Africa's third-biggest city Durban, five foreigners were beaten, the South African Press Association reported.
The Mozambican government is working with South African officials to help citizens who want to return home and find solutions to end the attacks, President Armando Guebuza told reporters in the northern province of Cabo Delgago yesterday.
South Africa's Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka apologized to victims of the violence when she visited the Nigerian capital, Abuja, today.
``The acts over the last few weeks are nothing else but criminal and we will not allow them to destabilize the country and our relations with the citizens of all other countries,'' Mlambo-Ngcuka said. ``I want to apologize to those who have been affected.''
- Bloomberg
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