The machete generation The machine gun and machete generation has arrived. The age of terror and idiocy is upon us. These marauding gangs embrace and glorify violence as a solution to our social ills. They feed on propaganda and exploit people’s fears. I first saw them in Kenya’s Rift Valley. They come under different guises […]
Attacks on foreigners in Gauteng seem to have abated, with police reporting that the situation has been ”quiet” since Wednesday evening. The anti-foreigner attacks broke out in Alexandra last Sunday and have since spread across the province and now into Mpumalanga, the North West and KwaZulu-Natal.
A Somali community in Johannesburg on Thursday accused police of firing live ammunition at its members as more xenophobic attacks were reported in Gauteng and former Cabinet minister Kader Asmal questioned claims of ‘third force’ involvement in the attacks.
South Africa made the front page of world newspapers for all the wrong reasons this week as anti-foreigner violence spiralled out of control.
”Regina Chinyandi (21), of Zimbabwe, arrived at the Alexandra police station on Monday with her one-day-old baby, Prince, wrapped in a napkin. Upon her return home from the hospital after giving birth, she had found her shack in ruins and all her friends from the township missing.” Surika van Schalkwyk speaks to refugees at Gauteng police stations.
The deployment of the army to areas hit by xenophobic attacks was long overdue, opposition parties said on Wednesday after President Thabo Mbeki’s nod to South African National Defence Force ”involvement”. South African police say 42 people have been killed in violence in Johannesburg that has raged for more than a week and 16Â 000 have been displaced.
The xenophobic attacks in Gauteng appeared to have subsided, a provincial spokesperson said on Wednesday. However, KwaZulu-Natal police are monitoring a possible outbreak of attacks there. ”There are no new reports of attacks,” said Thabo Masebe, deputy director of communications for the provincial government.
Metrorail has beefed up security in response to possible xenophobic attacks on train commuters, it said on Wednesday. ”Our own protection services, the South African railway police and contracted security staff have been beefed up in response to the perceived threat and in support of our security plan,” the company said in a statement.
The South African government is under growing pressure to send troops into Johannesburg’s townships for the first time since the apartheid era as African immigrants continued to flee a wave of killings and violence against foreigners. Several people were killed overnight including two men, believed to be Mozambican miners, who were beaten to death as mobs moved through townships.
Thousands of refugees in and around Johannesburg faced another night filled with anxiety on Tuesday evening as xenophobic tensions and violence continued to spread through the province. The violence has so far claimed 24 lives and left up to 10Â 000 people seeking refuge in shelters across Gauteng.
The police have ”concrete evidence” of a suspected third-force involvement in xenophobic attacks in and around Johannesburg, the Gauteng Legislature heard on Tuesday. ”The police now have concrete evidence of those involved in orchestrations and they are dealing with it,” said Gauteng’s minister for sport Barbara Creecy.
President Thabo Mbeki on Monday reiterated his call for an immediate end to attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng, which have left 22 people dead and up to 10Â 000 seeking refuge in shelters. ”Citizens from other countries on the African continent and beyond are as human as we are and deserve to be treated with respect,” the president.
As the sun set on another bloody day of xenophobic violence in Gauteng on Monday, at least 22 people were reported dead, many more injured and 217 arrested for fierce attacks on both foreigners and local residents living in the greater Johannesburg area. Aid organisations were assisting thousands of refugees at civic centres and police stations.
Two weeks after the start of the xenophobic attacks in Gauteng, the government and police are still at a loss on how to handle the escalating violence. "The attacks keep on taking us by surprise. When we think the situation is under control something erupts somewhere else," an official from the Department of Home Affairs told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> on Monday.
A wave of xenophobic attacks spread through Johannesburg townships on Monday. Mobs beat foreigners and set some ablaze in scenes reminiscent of apartheid-era violence. A total of 22 people have now been killed in the violence directed at immigrants around Johannesburg, which began a week ago.
As a fresh wave of severe xenophobic violence gripped Johannesburg on Sunday, with five people killed in the Cleveland area, hundreds fleeing to the safety of police stations and shops in the CBD looted, President Thabo Mbeki announced that a panel had been set up to look into the attacks.
The death of two Comrades Marathon runners last year could be a message from God that he was displeased with running the race on a Sunday, a Christian runner has suggested. Hansie Louw said in a statement at the weekend that he was asking all Christians to withdraw from the race.
Five people were killed and 50 were injured on Sunday when xenophobic attacks spread to Cleveland, Johannesburg police said. Spokesperson Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the violence started at about 1am. Foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, were attacked at the Cleveland informal settlement.
About a hundred members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and other organisations picketed the gates of Parliament in Cape Town on Saturday morning to protest against rising food prices and call for freedom in Zimbabwe. The event was to have been a march through the city.
Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Friday that those responsible for continuous xenophobic attacks in Gauteng townships will be ”severely dealt with”. He was responding to the violence in Alexandra and Diepsloot that erupted in the past week, in which three people were killed and dozens injured.
The spate of xenophobic violence in Alexandra has to be contained or it will cause problems in the future, Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said on Friday after visiting the troubled township. Meanwhile, the Gauteng African National Congress has compared the xenophobia that fuelled this week’s attacks to the racism of apartheid.
Think of the suffering After all the good things we achieved as South Africans with the help of countries such as Zimbabwe during our apartheid struggle, is this the way we thank our fellow brothers and sisters? By burning them and attacking them while we know that they are suffering in their countries? I am […]
Dillon Davie speaks to Isak Roux, who is in town for the premiere performance of his <i>Coming Home</i> cantata at the Johannesburg City Hall.
In 2003 the South African Cabinet approved the use of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in the public sector and in early 2004 the programme started. Now in its fifth year, government often claims that it is the "largest treatment programme in the world".
”To be quite honest, trains at one stage were unreliable,” says Leon Vender, settling back into the plush seats of the new Business Express, a spanking new train service launched last week. While other commuters are battling the morning hell-run between Johannesburg and Pretoria, these commuters are sipping coffee and taking in the view.
A special task team will investigate the cause of the recent xenophobic attacks in Alexandra and elsewhere in the country, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday. The team will make recommendations about steps required to prevent a recurrence of this ”negative tendency”, he told a media briefing.
Johannesburg townships Alexandra and Diepsloot were tense on Thursday morning in the wake of xenophobic violence that has killed a number of people since the weekend, police said. Captain Louise Reed said one man was injured in a suspected mob attack in Diepsloot on Wednesday evening.
In celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday this year, youth parliaments will be held across the country, it was announced at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Speaking at the announcement was NMCF chief executive Sibongile Mkhabela and the former president’s daughter, Zinzi, who is a trustee of the fund.
Three teenagers, including a 14-year-old boy, were shot and stabbed as violence flared up again in Alexandra on Tuesday night, Johannesburg police said on Wednesday. Constable Neria Malefetse said the police arrested another five people, bringing the total number of arrests related to suspected xenophobic attacks to 66.
”I want to go home.” This is the appeal of a Zimbabwean woman who fought to prevent her little sister from being raped during xenophobic attacks on Monday night. Willet Sibanda, who also has an eight-year-old daughter, received blankets and clothes at the Alexandra police station on Tuesday afternoon.
Xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, are against the freedom and democracy that was fought for in South Africa, political organisations on Tuesday. African National Congress spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said: ”Such acts can only take society backwards.”
Police were monitoring the situation in Alexandra on Monday following a suspected xenophobic attack that left two people dead and 40 injured, Gauteng police said. Constable Neria Malefetse said security had been tightened and units, including the public-order police unit, were helping to monitor the situation.