Posted on 05/19/2008 8:49:21 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Thousands of foreigners sought refuge at crowded community centres and police stations in Johannesburg on Monday as the death toll from a wave of xenophobic violence rose to at least 22.
Mobs roaming through poor townships around South Africa's economic capital have killed and beaten up immigrants over the past week, with Zimbabweans and other Africans reporting purges by armed locals looking for foreigners.
The violence erupted in Alexandra township early last week when two people were killed in an attack, and police said Monday that the number dead had risen to 22 with more than 250 arrested.
"An update has shown 22 have been killed since the start of the violence last week," police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo told AFP, adding that 257 people had been arrested.
In Reiger Park, a slum area in the city's outlying East Rand, violence again erupted early on Monday morning, with residents forced to flee as their homes were set alight, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Alongside one shack, a man lay beaten and bloody, with burns on his legs from attempts to set him on fire.
Thick plumes of smoke billowed around the area all day, police helicopters scouring the slums for more bodies.
Another man was spotted lying in the middle of a dirt road, stabbed and burned to death, covered with a silver blanket.
"He was chopped and burned," said a police official standing guard over the body, adding that the victim was believed to be Malawian.
It was not clear whether the death was part of the official death toll.
On Sunday an immigrant died after being covered with his own blankets and set alight. The gruesome image of the human fireball was captured on the front-page of several South African papers on Monday.
"All these things are the fault of the Zimbabweans. They should just go," said a South African woman in Reiger Park, who identified herself as Noxolo.
The violence has displaced thousands of foreigners, who are accused by many South Africans of depriving locals of jobs and committing crime.
Crowds of people gathered at community centres and police stations in affected parts of the Johannesburg area -- mainly the notorious central downtown area and slum areas to the east of the city.
"Last night we had more than 2,000 people," said Mxolisi Koom, a volunteer at the Germiston Civic Centre which is near a squatter camp that was attacked in the East Rand, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from central Johannesburg.
In the downtown Cleveland area, where six were reported dead in overnight violence in the early hours of Sunday morning, shops were closed and an eerie calm prevailed on Monday, police said.
"It's very tense. There's no place open at all," local police spokeswoman Cheryl Engelbrecht told AFP.
At least 300 people were sheltering at the local police station, she said, where they were being cared for by the Red Cross and local community groups.
The bulk of the immigrants who have flooded South Africa in recent years are from Zimbabwe, with an estimated three million having fled the economic meltdown in their homeland.
While President Thabo Mbeki and leader of the ruling African National Congress Jacob Zuma have both strongly condemned the attacks, the Human Rights Commission accused government of failing to take the threat of xenophobia seriously.
"There has been poor leadership in this country as far as these issues are concerned," HRC chief executive Tseliso Thipanyane told public radio.
"There is definitely a competition for scarce resources, houses and jobs and other services. If you look at where the majority of attacks have happened, it's largely in poor areas, where black people find themselves living."
Meanwhile Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel peace prize for his leading role in the campaign against apartheid, pleaded for an end to the violence.
"This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop," said the former archbishop of Cape Town.
Tutu recalled that when South Africans were fighting against apartheid they had been supported by people around the world and particularly in Africa.
"We can't repay them by killing their children. We can't disgrace our struggle by these acts of violence."
Thanks Jhummi.
...but I thought South African blacks were above racial violence and intolerance. TuTu was just chiding the US for racism. He should try cleaning up his own house first.
There will always be a core of Africa that is uncivilized.
But still, it's not something really bad like aparthied. (/s)
And they got what they wanted. Another backward corrupt failed state.
SA is catching up with the rest of Africa for hell-hole status.
Alas the fruits of liberalism. Funny, I don’t see the left prancing in the streets around the world decrying South Africa’s decline. Anyone else see any of that? Evidently perfection has finally been attained in that nation.
Hey, it’s the Americans who are xenophobes. Ask Barak Hussein Mohammed Obama.
Tribalism at its best.
Preachy editorials in American newspapers soon to follow.
I remember a time when I would casually drive across the bridge to eat lunch in Juarez. I used to date a girl who loved to go to the dog track there, and there wasn’t a concern in the world about safety. It’s been a while.
*Sigh* Joburg was once such a lovely place to live...
“Alongside one shack, a man lay beaten and bloody, with burns on his legs from attempts to set him on fire.”
The solution is quite obvious - outlaw matches!
It sounds to me as if the whole of Africa is becoming more uncivilized rather than less.
Carolyn
Roland the headless Thompson Gunner!
Yeah, the dog track was cool, back in 74’ we would go to the Shangrala restaurant. They finally had to build one over here.
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