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South Africa exodus may worsen
South African police reported more violence yesterday, with sporadic incidents reported across the country, including Cape Town and Durban, leaving scores more homeless.
- AP
- Published: 23:53 May 23, 2008
- South African men, women and boys are arrested after they looted a Somali owned business in Khayalitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday.
- Image Credit: EPA
Johannesburg: South African police reported more violence yesterday, with sporadic incidents reported across the country, including Cape Town and Durban, leaving scores more homeless.
No further deaths, however, have been reported.
Cape Town police spokesman Billy Jones said about 400 people had sought shelter on a racetrack after 12 people were injured in overnight attacks on an informal settlement in Cape Town.
"The area is quiet now but we are maintaining a visible presence," he said, adding that many of the displaced had been moved to various community centres and town halls.
At least 42 people have been killed and more than 25,000 foreigners displaced since attacks began earlier this month by South Africans who blame them for crime and unemployment.
Thousands have taken shelter in the winter cold at police stations, churches and other temporary camps. Officials plan to build tent cities on vacant land for them.
Emergency
Mozambique declared a state of emergency to help citizens fleeing attacks against foreigners in South Africa, warning yesterday that the "exodus will worsen" as thousands are still housed in makeshift camps awaiting transport back home.
Predicting an escalating "exodus", Mozambique Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi said the state of emergency had been declared on Thursday night as thousands of Mozambicans flooded across the border.
Baloi said about 10,000 people had returned on their own while 620 people arrived on Thursday in buses arranged by the consulate in Johannesburg.
He said the violence in South Africa had been discussed by President Armando Guebuza and his Cabinet, who decided the government's relief agency would provide support to fleeing citizens.
With the emergency declaration, the Mozambican government can release money and aid to help those returning. They are being transported from the capital to their home towns and given clothes, food, blankets and basic domestic implements so they can start again.
The government was still assessing needs and has not said how much money would be released.
In Geneva yesterday, the UN refugee agency said it was deeply concerned over xenophobic attacks against Zimbabweans and other foreigners in South Africa.
Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said UNHCR monitors have determined that a large percentage of the victims are Zimbabweans, including those who came to South Africa for asylum.
"They urgently need both assistance and protection," Pagonis said. "While thousands of Mozambicans are reportedly streaming home, many Zimbabweans cannot consider returning home due to the well-known situation in their country." In South Africa, inspector Sanku Tsunke said police were investigating the distribution of pamphlets calling for foreigners to leave the township of Garankua outside Pretoria. He said the pamphlets warned illegal immigrant to leave by yesterday.
Other incidents have been reported in the eastern province of Mpumalanga, which borders Mozambique. Four shops belonging to Somali businessmen were burned as well as two buses, South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Violence has also been reported in northern and western areas of South Africa.
On Wednesday, President Thabo Mbeki called in the South African National Defence Force for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Soldiers were used in a dawn swoop on Thursday on three downtown Johannesburg worker hostels whose residents allegedly were involved in inciting violence. In all, 28 people were arrested.
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