Right...of course...sure... Attack not xenophobic — community

A MOB attack in Durban at the weekend that claimed the lives of two foreigners and critically injured a third was not an act of xenophobia, a community meeting has resolved.

Refugees held after clashing with police Flames of Hate South Africans and foreign nationals agreed at the meeting, which was held in the city centre yesterday, that Sunday’s attack on a nearby building was a reaction to spiralling crime in the area. ANC ward councillor Vusi Khoza, who convened the meeting, said the community and foreign nationals had buried their differences over the incident. On Sunday, about 20 South African men and women, carrying knobkerries, bush knives and broomsticks, forced themselves into a building in Maude Mfusi Street, where Malawians, Tanzanians, Mozambicans and Zimbabweans were living. The foreigners ran for cover as the mob approached, hiding under beds and locking themselves in bathrooms. Three terrified men jumped out of the high building to protect themselves. Zane Omari said his younger brother, Said, was pushed out of a sixth-floor window by the mob. Said later died in hospital. The two other injured men were taken to hospital where one died and the other remains in a critical condition. Their nationalities have not yet been confirmed. Omari’s older brother, Ramadhani, was killed in Gauteng last year when xenophobic attacks claimed the lives of dozens of foreign nationals. The Times

Fresh Xenophobic deaths

Durban - Six months after violent xenophobic clashes in South Africa, renewed tensions between locals and foreigners were reported in the port city of Durban on Tuesday. At least three people were killed in the Albert Park area at the weekend when a mob of around 150 locals carrying machetes and other weapons stormed apartment buildings inhabited by foreigners, forcing several to flee by jumping out of windows, according to police.

The Mercury newspaper on Tuesday reported that a Malawian man died after jumping from the sixth storey while two others sustained serious injuries. Police later said the two injured foreigners, a Mozambican and a Zimbabwean, later died in hospital.

Heavily-armed police were called in to intervene in a hostile confrontation involving locals and foreigners from other parts of Africa who live in the area, the newspaper said.

Politicians meanwhile spoke of at least two similar attacks in Durban, located in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

Councillor Vusi Khoza told the South African Press Association (SAPA) a mass meeting was scheduled for Tuesday to discuss the Albert Park attacks.

"We will have representatives from the community policing forum, the police and foreign nationals during the meeting. We want to find a solution to this problem and to explain to our people that these attacks should stop," Khoza was quoted as saying.

Khoza told SAPA that foreign nationals from the area had on Friday told him of an alleged plan to attack them.

A shopowner said that every night for the past three days, armed groups had been threatening foreigners in his neighbourhood.

The Mercury showed images of armed men and women marching into a building, under a report headlined, "Mob forces men to jump."

At least 60 people were killed and about 100,000 displaced in a strong wave of xenophobic violence throughout South Africa in May. Most the refugee camps that were established at the time, have been closed and foreigners deported, or forced to reintegrate. - Earth Times