South African mobs hunt down immigrants

Peter Walker and agencies
Monday, May 19, 2008

Video: Anti-immigrant violence in Johannesburg

Mobs hunting immigrants in poor suburbs around Johannesburg have killed 22 people, South African police said today.

At least two were killed today in Tembisa township, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Horrific accounts have emerged, including people being murdered by having burning tyres place around their necks.

The AFP news agency quoted police as saying 22 people had been confirmed dead since anti-immigrant violence began last week.

Dozens more have been hospitalised with bullet and stab wounds. Around 3,000 people have been burned out of their homes and left destitute.

More immigrants' shacks were set alight today, Red Cross officials said.

The attacks escalated sharply over the weekend. Hundreds of people are sheltering at churches and police stations. Mobs set up burning barricades in some suburbs, while the violence spread to parts of Johannesburg's central business area, with streets shut off by makeshift barricades and shops looted.

Those attacked include people from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Somalia. There has been sporadic violence in recent months aimed at Somali-run stores around Johannesburg that are accused by locals undercutting South African businesses.

The outbreak is a serious blow to South Africa's post-apartheid aim of tolerance and equality. The country is trying to shed its crime-ridden reputation ahead of the 2010 football World Cup.

The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, said he would set up a panel of experts to investigate. His likely successor, Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ruling ANC party, said the country could not allow itself to become "famous for xenophobia".

"We cannot be a xenophobic country," he said, noting that neighbouring countries had helped shelter ANC members and other South Africans during the anti-apartheid struggle.

The bishop of a Methodist church attacked by a mob as it sheltered a group of Zimbabweans called for a state of emergency.

"We consider that the situation is getting so serious that the police can no longer control it," Paul Veryn told SABC radio.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants live in Johannesburg. They are a mixture of illegal residents and others who have South African identity documents. Many have lived there for more than a decade.

Their numbers have swelled with the arrival of many thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing destitution and political turmoil. Up to 3 million of them are thought to be in South Africa, which has a liberal immigration and refugee policy.

Resentment has grown in poor Johannesburg suburbs, where some residents have blamed immigrants for worsening social problems including crime, unemployment and economic hardship.

Source: Guardian, May 19, 2008