Posted on 05/21/2008 1:18:50 PM PDT by blam
South Africa: Cape Town on high alert as Thabo Mbeki deploys troops to quell violence
Last Updated: 8:31PM BST 21/05/2008
President Thabo Mbeki tonight ordered troops into South Africa’s troubled townships as violence against black migrant workers spread across the country, threatening the city of Cape Town.
Attacks on migrant workers erupted around Johannesburg over the weekend, forcing foreigners to return to their neighboring countries.
Violence flared against foreigners in the provinces of KwaZulu-Nataland and Mpumalanga and police in Cape Town were put on high alert.
Mr Mbeki, who has been criticised for his lack of leadership during a week of trouble fuelled by resentment of foreign workers, approved a request by the police for the “involvement” of the South African Defence Force.
Trevor Manuel, the finance minister, told Johannesburg’s Radio 702 that the troops would probably be patrolling troubled areas this week. “They will be there in a back-up role,” he said. “They are there to assist the police.”
Violence spread to the port of Durban yesterday where a mob wielding clubs and broken bottles threatened a group of Nigerian residents in one of the city’s townships.
Police said no-one had been hurt but property belonging to the Nigerians had been damaged. News of the attack sent some 700 black migrants living in Durban to flee their homes and seek refuge in police stations and church halls. Thousands more, many of them from Zimbabwe, have fled from their homes across the country.
Bheki Cele, KwaZulu-Natal’s community safety minister said the violence was “political” and blamed the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party for the trouble.
“These are purely criminal activities and they will be dealt with decisively in ensuring that xenophobic attacks are not used as scapegoats for criminals who want to serve their own selfish interests,” Mr Cele said.
Police in Cape Town, South Africa’s “mother city”, were also put on high alert amid growing uncertainty among the area’s large population of nationals from other African states.
In the eastern Mpumalanga province, police reported that “criminal youths” had attacked and burned a shop run by a Somali businessman.
In the Pretoria and Johannesburg areas, where xenophobic violence exploded a week ago leaving at least 26 people dead, hundreds injured and thousands homeless, it was a relatively calm night. Police reported that three people had been slightly injured in a squatter camp in Tembisa north of Johannesburg but the disturbance had been swiftly brought under control.
There are an estimated five million foreign blacks living and working in South Africa, at least three million of them Zimbabweans who have fled the tyranic rule of Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
President Thabo Mbeki has announced the establishment of a “special committee” to examine the causes of the violence but his own government’s failings to address the widespread poverty within South Africa itself and deal with the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe are blamed by opposition parties, human rights groups and NGOs.
The Institute of Race Relations issued a scathing indictment on Mbeki’s style of government, listing rampant crime, unemployment, education and corruption as they key areas where his government had failed.
“In failing to maintain the rule of law, the state had conditioned many poor communities to violent behaviour,” the Institute said.
It takes a village...
...to put a flaming tire around some guy’s neck.
Someone figure out that the Princess Essiene was scamming them?
Where the Thabster is concerned, I seem to recall there's a proverb about the relation between what is reaped, relative to what has been sown, but I can't think of it right now.
WHERE ARE MANDELA AND TUTU? AND THE MEDIA? AND THE UN?
Zim related. SA having a hard time with 3 million Zim refugees.
Well, he had his chance, now it's coming back to bite him for doing nothing.
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Good question.
As I said a couple of years ago on FR, if you are white, it is time to leave SA. Zim is the future of SA. And I do not see a way to stop that outcome.
UN send in troops? haha
OAS do anything? haha
US send in troops? Under obamessiah, maybe. Just targets, then.
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