'I watched in horror but could do nothing'

A Burundian refugee was beaten up in an apparent xenophobic attack on a train near Claremont station, and later died in hospital.

Police have opened a murder docket.

Albert Mugabe, 27, had boarded a train at Retreat after visiting friends. He was reportedly attacked when the train neared Claremont by a group of Xhosa-speaking people, but Metrorail was under the impression that Mugabe was attacked when he tried to rob someone.

Metrorail's Riana Scott confirmed that "an incident of attempted robbery aboard train No 0188 was reported on Thursday, July 22 at 5.40pm at Claremont Station and that the alleged assailant was taken to Groote Schuur hospital for treatment".

This version of events has been denied by Mugabe's friend, Fidel Nzayikorera, who said the claim was utter nonsense.

"He had money, he worked hard and had no family, why would he need to rob someone? It just does not make sense."

After his body lay in the Salt River Mortuary as an "unknown", Mugabe's friends found him there and identified his body.

Nzayikorera, Aimable Cyuma, Methuselah Mukenga, Alexis Nduwe and Pastor John Kadende, all friends of Mugabe, have been battling for more than a week to find answers about Mugabe's death.

They said they were informed about the attack by an acquaintance who witnessed it.

Mugabe's friends said they could see no visible signs of injury or disfigurement when they identified his body.

A car guard, Elie Nkundaniyigena from the Congo, is the only person who saw what happened in the final moments of Mugabe's life.

Speaking through an interpreter, he told Weekend Argus he had witnessed the entire incident, but fled from the carriage after the train stopped at Claremont.

Nkundaniyigena said he recognised Mugabe as he stood in the middle of the carriage chatting to other commuters, even though he did not know his name.

"There were South Africans, Zimbabweans and Malawians in the carriage. At first it appeared as if they were just talking, but then someone asked Mugabe if he could speak Xhosa, where he worked and how long he'd been in the country.

According to Nkundaniyigena Mugabe said he could speak Xhosa and that he worked as a safety officer on a boat and lived in Simon's Town.

"Close to Claremont station, the same people started grabbing Mugabe and three other foreigners who were on the same train.

"They kicked Mugabe while the other men managed to escape as soon as the train stopped. I watched in horror, but could do nothing. Everything happened so fast and because I was afraid I stayed low, hiding behind a uniformed man who was sitting next to me."

Nkundaniyigena said when he looked up Mugabe had been pushed down and someone was banging his head against the train floor.

He added that many people fled from the train at Claremont station in fear.

"The people were singing 'makwerekwere hamba, makwerekwere hamba' (get out foreigner)... I ran away without looking back and called a friend who knew the victim."

Nkundaniyigena said the incident left him traumatised and scared because he needs to catch a train to get to work.

"I now take a later train than usual to avoid full trains," he said.

Nzayikorera, a close friend of Mugabe, said after being informed about the incident he tried to retrace Mugabe's steps.

"I went to Groote Schuur hospital on Friday and the sister on duty confirmed that an unknown man was treated in Ward C14 and died the next morning. She referred me to the Salt River mortuary."

Nzayikorera said Mugabe was not a violent man and would not have been involved in crime.

Kadende said they were planning to give Mugabe a proper burial, as he had no relatives in the city.

"He will be buried at Maitland cemetery as soon as we can get the money to arrange the funeral. Nobody knows if Mugabe still has family in Burundi, but it is up to us to bring him peace."

A concerned Kadende said he could not believe that the authorities and the politicians were still in denial about xenophobia.

"Our friend is dead, he was killed for no other reason except the fact that he was a foreigner."

Claremont police spokeswoman Angie Latchman confirmed that police opened a murder docket this week.

She said: "The deceased was assaulted on July 22, at Claremont train station and taken by paramedics to Groote Schuur, where he passed away the next day."

Latchman urged anyone with information about the case to contact the investigating officer, Roger Mintoor, at Claremont police station on 072 869 9160.

Metrorail said on Friday that the matter was tabled at the Provincial Rail Crime Combating Forum this week and would remain the subject of a joint investigation between Metrorail's Protection Services Department and the Railway Police.

- Cape Argus

Shop-owner attacks: What's really going on?

Today the Daily Voice can reveal the truth behind the attacks on foreigner-owned businesses on the Cape Flats.

An in-depth investigation has revealed that a prominent shebeen queen is the ringleader of an evil syndicate behind numerous attacks that have unsettled the uneasy peace between locals and foreigners.

The Daily Voice is in possession of statements from three hitmen that directly link the woman to multiple attacks on foreigners.

A source close to the investigation says the woman has managed to mobilise a small army of angry businessmen and dangerous killers.

They have the money and the guns and their sole aim is to rid the Flats of all flourishing rivals so that their own businesses can fill the gap.

The attacks started on March 21 in Luzuko near Philippi-East and spiked after the 2010 World Cup.

Two of the hitmen?s statements say the woman gave direct orders for at least two Somalis to be shot and killed and their shops torched.

The statement reads: ?I shot the first Somali in the right shoulder and was too scared to carry out the second attack.

"I gave the gun to the second hitman who shot dead Farouk Hussain on the night of March 21 in Luzuko, near Philippi-East, and I threw the petrol bomb at the spaza."

The three suspects, who are currently in Pollsmoor prison, claim the shebeen owner paid them R4 000 for killing a Somali, injuring another and burning their stock.

The three Philippi-East suspects now face charges of murder, arson and attempted murder for the attack.

While police build their case against the dangerous woman, they say they are taking no chances with their investigation.

"There are fears that by revealing the name of the shebeen queen, she might hire other hitmen to eliminate the three who are presently behind bars," the source says.

"We are aware of at least one cop who was paid
R30 000 to make a docket disappear and because of this bribery element, investigations into attacks on foreigners are classified information.

"The modus operandi in most attacks is the same, and because of this we have asked the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to centralise all the cases so that it can be brought before one magistrate."

He adds that the three men are the first solid leads cops have to help solve the attacks on foreigners.

"Cops have information that this shebeen queen had regularly met with prominent township business people who are allegedly behind the brutal violence directed at foreigners," the source says.

"It is a well-organised plan with one common purpose and that is to drive foreign-owned shops out of the townships, kill them and burn their shops so that local-owned businesses in townships can survive."

A task team is now investigating attacks in Wellington, Mbekweni, Harare, Makhaza, Philippi, Macassar, Franschhoek and Klapmuts.

The dockets of at least 13 cases under investigation are not even kept at local police level in order to stop corrupt cops from being bribed into making dockets disappear.

Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Billy Jones confirmed that criminals are behind the wave of attacks on foreigners.

"Investigations into cases indicate that criminals are behind these attacks," he says.
"A lot of suspects are behind bars and I am aware of one attack where five were busted.

"A task team works around the clock to bring an end to these attacks and those orchestrating the violence."

In the most recent case, three Somali shopkeepers narrowly escaped being burnt to death inside their small shop when their winkel was petrol-bombed in Wallacedene last week.

Two people were arrested for the attack a few days later and prominent community leaders in the area say they have no doubt it is local business people behind the attacks.

Two South African Civic Association members from the area say hitmen were hired to kill them after they spoke out against the attacks earlier this month. - Daily Voice

Officers held after Somali shopowner robbed

Four police officers from the Crime Combating Unit were arrested in Cape Town on Monday night after having allegedly stolen R400 and R911 of airtime from a Somali-owned shop in Du Noon.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, shopkeeper Selman Cabdulqaadir said four men in police uniforms, driving an SAPS-marked 4x4 bakkie, robbed his elder brother's shop Maphinda's Spaza in Ingwe Street, Du Noon, at about 6pm on Monday.

He said he and his two brothers were in the shop when the men pulled up outside and, with guns on their hips, ordered them to open the security door, claiming they wanted to search for fake cigarettes.

Cabdulqaadir said when he opened the door the four men went inside the shop, closing the door behind them.

He says he and his brothers were then ordered to stand at the back of the room while they lit cigarettes of different brands, saying they were testing if they were fake.

He said "at some point" the men became aggressive and pushed them around, questioning them about their asylum-seeker or refugee documentation.

After "testing" the cigarettes they took R400 from the cash box and airtime worth R911, said Cabdulqaadir's half-brother Cabdi Hassan.

While leaving the shop, one of the men took an avocado pear, said Hassan.

"We were scared. They are supposed to protect us yet they are acting like criminals," said Cabdulqaadir.

"The thieves here do to us whatever they want, now police are doing the same."

He said as they left the shop, one of the men turned around and told them not to open the shop on Tuesday as they would return to check the validity of their Home Affairs documents, Hassan said.

Milnerton police spokesperson Warrant Officer Daphne Dell confirmed that four police officers from the CCU had been arrested on Monday night.

However, Dell was unable to say when the men would appear in court or what charges they faced. - Cape Times

Attacks on foreign shopkeepers continue

Four Somali shopkeepers have been injured in an evening of explosive xenophobic violence.

Jealous rival shopkeepers allegedly set fire to a shop belonging to three of the men and shot another after warning them to leave the area.

When Manad Ali Afrah, Abdi Omar Ali and Muse Ali Maxene ignored the threat, they almost ended up paying with their lives.

A petrol bomb was tossed at their Wallacedene shop shortly before 4am on Friday while the men were asleep.

Cops say the three men couldn't find the key to their house and nearly ended up burning to death.
By the time they escaped, their arms and faces had been scorched.

A neighbour says he initially thought the victims were thugs as they raced toward his home.

"I went out and saw two people coming towards me and thought they were skollies (criminals) and then realised it's the victims," he says.

In a separate incident, cops say a fourth Somali man was shot in the shoulder and leg by people who posed as customers when they visited his shop on Thursday evening.

Kraaifontein police spokesperson Captain Gerhard Niemand says police are investigating arson and attempted murder. - Daily Voice

Attackers 'pretended to be customers'

Yet another community leader has been shot at for taking a stand against xenophobic violence on the Cape Flats.

A day after South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) member, Pasika Tyawana, told the Daily Voice about the attempt on his life, another member has been shot at.

Thelma Duda, 31, says business owners in Wallacedene and Bloekombos want her dead because she publicly declared that refugees should be allowed to stay in the country.

Thelma says two men shot at her and her family on Tuesday night, narrowly missing her and her four-year-old son Linda while they sat in their home, which is also a spaza shop.

"They fired one bullet and it passed both of us and hit the wall," she says.

"They ran away and I couldn't get a good look at them because they had hooded tops on."

Thelma, Sanco's Secretary General, recently attended a meeting in Bloekombos where she told local business people they would have her to deal with if they hurt any foreigners.

"In the other meeting on Thursday, I said the same thing but I didn't think they would hire people to shoot me," says the Wallacedene woman.

"I don't feel safe, those men pretended to be customers and they saw I was with my family and they didn't care about the five children in the house."

She says one of the shooters walked past her house in a cap on Wednesday.

"He had a gun in his hand and hid it with his sleeve, he probably came to finish his job," she says.

Kraaifontein police spokesperson Gerhard Niemand says they have opened an attempted murder docket. - Daily Voice

"This is xenophobic water"

"This is xenophobic water," a woman among a group of residents quipped as Gauteng Community Safety MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu stepped over the murky waters gushing through the narrow alleys of the Kya Sand informal settlement, north-west of Joburg, which has been racked by violence.

But for a Mozambican, Fabian Ngobeni, this was not the time for jokes. Or to play.

As the MEC and his entourage moved deeper into the settlement, reassuring residents that the outbreak of violence that left many people wounded and several spaza shops looted would not recur, Ngobeni escorted his wife out of the area, heading back to Mozambique.

"My wife is scared, so she's going back home. She has only been here for four months and she insisted that she wanted to leave," said Ngobeni.

On Monday night, the young couple were forced to take cover underneath their bed as a rowdy mob tore down their neighbour's shack and hacked the occupants with weapons.

Unconfirmed reports that a woman had been gang-raped during Monday's attacks had also reached the couple. The presence of the police did not reassure them.

"I don't want this to happen to my wife. I was here in 2008 (during the previous xenophobic violence) and I don't want my wife to die," Ngobeni said.

Mosunkutu tried to calm the residents, still jittery from Monday night's violence. Most residents said the relative peace in the settlement was only temporary, with fears of more attacks mounting.

Most called on the government to deploy the army, claiming the police were "too soft and friendly".

Among them was Marcia Mocheku, from Marble Hall, Limpopo, who said she narrowly escaped death while a marauding mob broke into shacks belonging to her neighbours and attacked them.

To avoid the attacks, Mocheku said she had to pretend there was nobody inside her shack by removing the padlock outside the door and leaving the chain dangling.

"I just lay there quietly, holding my breath and making sure I didn't cough," she said.

The narrow path along her shack was splattered with blood - a stark reminder of Monday night's vicious attacks.

The police commander for Honeydew, Major-General Oswald Reddy, said that of the 11 attacks reported, five involved South Africans, four Zimbabweans and two Mozambicans.

As darkness fell on Tuesday, about 15 vehicles from the army drove into the area.

Mosunkutu and his Housing and Local Government counterpart, Kgaogelo Lekgoro, were quick to dismiss xenophobia as the reason behind the attacks.

"This is pure criminal activities. Our assessment of the situation is clear, and no such thing (as xenophobia) exists here. Not a trace," Mosunkutu said.

He added the government would consider the delivery of services such as electricity in the area as part of a plan to counter the outbreak of violence.

"What I've seen here is thugs robbing residents. They are doing it against the backdrop of xenophobia, but it's pure thuggery. It's totally coincidental that the victims happened to be foreigners," Lekgoro said.

At least 10 suspects were arrested on Tuesday after tip-offs from residents.

- The Star

Community shuns anti-xenophobia drive

An anti-xenophobia initiative got off to a rocky start when residents in Dunoon, where the programme was launched, refused to sign a pledge condemning attacks on foreigners.

Unite As One, a collaboration between four NGOs - the Black Sash, the Scalibrini Centre, People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) and Sonke - aims to collect one million signatures in time for African Human Rights Day on October 17. The pledge is not only to be tolerant of all Africans, but also to "prevent any acts of xenophobia - intolerance, intimidation or violence; and to report to the police if any person violates the rights or safety of another".

Dunoon was chosen as the site of the campaign's launch because of its role as the epicentre of xenophobic violence in 2008. The press were initially told that volunteers would gather signatures in Dunoon after the press conference. But it soon became clear that locals had not been informed, and were not receptive to the programme's goals.

"The people are calm now," said Sarah Gwele, a volunteer for the community organisation South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco). "If you get them started, if you mention the name xenophobia, it's gonna go boom," she said.

Gwele lives in Dunoon with her two children and her husband, who is from Namibia.

"That's why I'm scared," she said.

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Breslin and Deputy Police Commissioner Nathi Dladla were among the first to sign the petition, which volunteers will distribute to schools and churches throughout the country. People can also sign it online.

Even though he signed the petition, Dladla dismissed recent reports of xenophobic attacks as "just rumours".

"We haven't received any cases reported to police that are xenophobic per se," he said.

But a crowd of women standing across the street from where the press conference was held were not interested in signing anything protecting them. "They never signed anything to come into this country," said one woman.

Passop's Braam Hanekom was rebuffed when he tried to talk to the women.

"At the end of the day, we're not expecting everyone to sign," he said, "but they haven't been engaged yet."

The SA National Civics Organisation's (Sanco) Sam Ndzunga agreed, pointing to the widespread support of Ghana during the World Cup as evidence that Africans could unite.

Black Sash programme manager Nyembezi Nkosikhulule said Unite As One was not just about signing a piece of paper, but about committing to action.

"We must dispel intolerance and ignorance," he said. - Cape Argus

Xenophobia Watch - IOL Gallery

About ten people were arrested on Tuesday morning in connection with Monday night's violent clashes at the Kya Sands informal settlement near Honeydew. The attacks left five people - four of whom were foreign nationals - wounded.

There was a heavy contingency of police officers who moved from house to house and conducted stop-and-searches, looking for illegal weapons and drugs in the area. Police also questioned residents for information about instigators of the violence.

Residents stood in groups discussing the aftermath of Monday night's violence that left several spaza shops looted.

Most business owners - especially foreigners - and residents said they were now fearing for their lives. They called on government to deploy the army, saying the police did not seem capable of protecting them as the clashes took place while they were patrolling. - IOL

Heavy police presence amid xenophobic clashes

Xenophobic clashes broke out in Kya Sands late on Monday night and during the early hours of Tuesday morning as police have moved in and are maintaining a heavy, watchful presence.

"We don't have all the details yet, and I can only confirm that there definitely were some attacks.

"We're still sketchy on exactly how many and we're busy investigating the motives," said Brigadier Govindsamy Mariemuthoo, police spokesman for the province.

"This kind of thing starts up late at night and then quietens down. It seems everything is calm but tense in the area this morning."

Clashes broke out in the informal settlement at about 10.45pm on Monday, possibly sparked by a robbery deep inside the settlement in northern Johannesburg.

At least five people were wounded on Monday night - four of them foreigners and one a South African whose screams that he was not a foreigner were not heeded by the mob who attacked him and left him with a massive gash on the back of his head.

Eyewitness News reporter Alex Eliseev said running battles took place throughout the night until calm eventually prevailed from about 1am.

He said a heavy police presence, a patrolling nyala and an overhead helicopter did much to ensure that there were no more violent outbreaks.

Two injured men were pulled out of the area by paramedics after they sustained deep cuts to their heads. One of them described having been attacked with an axe.

A woman and her partner tried to outrun an angry mob of about 20 South Africans. She fell and was kicked as she lay on the ground before being wrapped in a blanket and carried to safety by her partner. She was taken to hospital for treatment.

The South African man who was injured told how an angry mob had asked him where he was from and then attacked him before he could respond. He was also taken to hospital with a deep head wound.

Mariemuthoo has maintained the consistent police line that the attacks were not necessarily motivated by xenophobia and that a criminal motive was also under investigation.

Local residents were said to be jealous of the success of informal businesses established by foreigners and were believed to be behind much of the looting that had taken place. - IOL

Somali teen murdered at shop

A Somali teenager was killed outside a shop on Sweet Home Farm near Nyanga on Monday.

Omar Haji Mohamud, 19, who was staying with friends and helping at the Madiba Shop, a spaza shop, was killed at about 7am.

Nyanga police Captain Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi said Mohamud had been confronted by two people who demanded that he open the security gate to the shop. "While he was searching for the key, the suspects fired a shot at him through the gate, fatally wounding him in the face."

The two ran away.

Mahad Omar Abdi, a mediator for the Somali Crisis Group based in Bellville, said the shooters took nothing.

Community leader Sithembele Forest Ndathane said residents had been working with police since rumours of xenophobic violence started.

Anybody with information can call the Nyanga police station at 021 380 3320/3376 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111. - Cape Argus

Cops to 'stamp out xenophobia myths'

Police have vowed to "smoke" anyone committing crime or spreading rumours of violence.

This promise came as the government and law enforcers yesterday said they would not allow anyone, especially criminals, to rob South Africa of its World Cup glory by running xenophobic smear campaigns against the country.

"There are no such things. There are a few criminal acts perpetuated by young children tasked to loot the shops of business owners' competitors," said a visibly irritated national police commissioner, General Bheki Cele.

"Those fleeing this so-called xenophobic violence are seasonal workers who are leaving one province for another as well as those returning home across our borders after watching a successful World Cup."

Cele and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa were in Pretoria yesterday at a briefing on World Cup issues.

Asked if police were concerned about the potential flare-up of xenophobic violence, Cele and Mthethwa said they were not.

"What we are worried about are those peddling these rumours, which have the potential to wreak havoc by becoming a reality if left unchecked.

"South Africans are peace-loving citizens who, over the past month, welcomed 3.1 million foreigners to our shores, none of whom were hurt in any so-called xenophobic incident.

"We are concerned about these rumours because people, especially criminals, have ulterior motives, when they spread them. They want to commit common crimes using xenophobic violence to cloak their intentions.

"Those who commit these crimes are pure criminals and that is all, nothing more and nothing less," said Cele.

Mthethwa, who tried to play down the looting of foreigners' shops in the Western Cape, said: "South Africa is not a Banana Republic. We have law enforcement agencies and various organisations which will do everything in their power to help dispel these rumours.

"We are not denying that there is crime in South Africa, but like all other crimes, we will deal with it and will continue to arrest and 'smoke' those who commit crime," said Mthethwa, in reference to the government's new aggressive strategy to stop the spreading of rumours about xenophobia.

Mthethwa said the strategy would include education campaigns and social development.

"The success of this strategy depends not only on national government, but also provinces, which must stop playing political football and come up with positive pro-active measures on what they plan on doing to stop the spreading of these xenophobic myths and rumours."

The government "has never and will never take people's lives and safety for granted. We will do everything in our power to protect people".

Asked who was behind the so-called smear campaigns and their motives, Mthethwa said: "Some of those doing it are doing so for economic reasons, while others who are pushing the rumours include some international newspapers who, even before our hosting of the World Cup, tried to discredit South Africa.

"We are calling on all South Africans to stop peddling this hysteria and for everyone, including the media, to stamp out these rumours once and for all."

- Pretoria News

Zuma calls for isolation of criminal elements in xenophobic threats

The President of the Republic of South Africa Jacob Zuma has finally come to the party by realising that indeed not everyone in the family has been making nice with the guests.

Zuma appealed for calm yesterday and urged foreign nationals who were threatened to go to the police and thereby isolate the criminal elements making these threats.

“Let us isolate all elements who may have sinister agendas, who may want to create havoc and sow pain and destruction in communities, especially foreign nationals residing in our country,” he said.

The president had previously dismissed claims of imminent xenophobic violence but has received increasing pressure from other arms within government as well the Movement for Democratic Change, a coalition movement within Zimbabwe that has branches in South Africa. The MDC was urging prevention before cure in this situation.

Government has grown concerned about reports that some foreign nationals “may be fleeing the country due to fears of possible xenophobic attacks”.

Reports say the Jesuit Refugee Services centre in Johannesburg said it was assisting dozens of mainly Somali and Ethiopian traders who were closing their businesses and taking refuge at the centre each night for fear of being attacked while they slept.

On Tuesday, the South African Institute for Race Relations urged the government and African National Congress (ANC) leaders to speak out and change negative perceptions that many black South Africans had about African immigrants.

Meanwhile last week, police minister and chairman of the inter-ministerial committee on xenophobia Nathi Mthethwa said that the threats were the latest “hysteria” that sought to discredit SA’s successful hosting of the World Cup.

Zuma has also urged the policing services in South Africa to identify the “hooligans” who are threatening violence against foreign nationals and detain them quickly.

The government has in the past couple of days blamed the media for distorting incidents into a xenophobic context. It is a relief to see the ones in charge of the country rise up and say 'no' instead of playing the blame game.

- newstime

Minister blithely dismisses reports of Xenophobia

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa today re-iterated that the recent violence in the Western Cape was criminals using the fear over xenophobia to further their dishonest aims.

Mthethwa told a media briefing in Pretoria today that “Xenophobia is not going to happen. I call on people and the media not to be part of peddling this hysteria of a possible outbreak...There is no such systematic thing as xenophobia in the country”.

He said the persistent talk of a looming xenophobic violence epidemic was talk that some hoped would be self-fulfilling.

Police Commissioner Bheki Cele joined in, noting that there had been a single incident just before the world cup where 11 buses carrying Zimbabweans came into the country but escaped media mention. He contrasted this with the reporting of virtually every single movement of foreigners out of the country.

Mthethwa insisted that government was taking the threats of xenophobia seriously but warned the media and the public of the dangers of ill-informed speculation. (Newstime)

Xenophobic attacks 'good for business'

Cross-border transport operators are cashing in on growing fears of renewed xenophobic attacks in South Africa, Zimbabwe's Herald online reported on Thursday.

Transporters said business was brisk with Zimbabweans based in South Africa taking their valuables back home.

The operators were charging R300 for travellers with passports and R1000 for those without from Beitbridge to Bulawayo. To carry household property such as refrigerators and stoves, they charged R1000.

One transporter, who identified himself only as "Bra Joe" said he made about R15,000 last week and the number of trips had increased in the past two months.

The publication reported that although an official at the Beitbridge border post said some travellers cited xenophobia as their reason for leaving South Africa, most people were "ordinary travellers" and blamed the media for fuelling xenophobia fears without proof.

Political parties, the government and civil society groups in South Africa are at odds over whether xenophobia would resurface as it did in 2008, when at least 62 people were killed.

- Sapa

Residents urge foreigners to return

The provincial government departments assisting foreigners who fled to safety in the Cape Winelands say a number of them have returned to the areas they left.

On Wednesday provincial government department spokesperson, Daniella Ebenezer said only 140 of the 250 foreigners who were taken to Antoniesvlei Hall in Wellington, remained there. About 110 people who were brought to the hall this week have returned to their communities.

On Sunday night, while the world watched the World Cup final, hundreds of foreigners who have businesses in the Mbekweni informal settlement in Paarl and the New Rest settlement in Wellington were escorted to safety by police when local residents began looting their shops.

The foreigners were taken to Antoniesvlei resort and were housed in a hall. But the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) secretary-general for the Boland area Peboho Majela, said local residents have called for the foreigners to return.

He said a "well attended" community meeting was held on Tuesday night, where residents insisted the foreigners come back to the community.

"Not a single member was doubting whether to bring back the foreigners," he said.

He said that Sanco members in the area were planning to recruit foreigners in these areas on street committees they hoped to form.

"We're trying to convince them to come back and we're coming with a different position. We are going to adopt some of the foreigners on our committees, when we revive the street committees," he said.

Provincial police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk, said on Wednesday that so far the area was reported to have been "quiet" after Sunday night. He said police would maintain "a visible presence" in the affected areas.

Meanwhile, Ebenezer said the eight foreigners who were staying at a church in Hanover Park had returned to the areas from which they fled.

Also, the 25 displaced people staying at a school in Delft remain and 49 are being housed in a church in Franschhoek.

Ebenezer said there were also no more foreigners along the N1 or at the Huguenot tunnel, where they had been the past few weeks, hoping to catch a ride out of the Western Cape.

Civic organisations on Wednesday called on government to recognise that xenophobic attacks were happening in the Western Cape. The plea came a few days after the Cape Argus reported president Jacob Zuma saying that the threats of an outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa were still rumours.

The Social Justice Coalition, Equal Education and the Treatment Action Campaign released a statement criticising government's failure to acknowledge the xenophobic nature of the recent attacks on foreigners.

"In our view, it appears that senior police and the intelligence services have failed to properly brief President Zuma and the cabinet. Many senior officials appear reluctant to use the term "xenophobia" in the hope that this will result in violence subsiding."

The three organisations have been holding workshops in Makhaza in Khayelitsha since last month's attacks on at least three Somali-owned shops in the area.

"We have been engaging with broader civil society networks and forums, but our joint work has been limited to Khayelitsha," they said.

"During this work it was found that fear of attacks after the World Cup was indeed very prevalent (among both locals and immigrants), and that many immigrants were being directly and indirectly threatened and intimidated."

The group said it found that in most cases where foreigners were attacked in Khayelitsha police responded quickly and effectively "under difficult conditions".

Meanwhile the Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum, under the chairmanship of Dr Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, held a special consultative forum to discuss the recent attacks on foreigners. It urged the police to work with local communities in isolating those who were responsible.

- Cape Argus

Attacks are about business not hatred: cops

Cops are saying that several attacks on foreigners in rural areas are related to fights over business territory and not xenophobia.

A Somali shopowner's house was petrol-bombed in Grabouw over the past weekend.

In another incident, cops are looking for a large number of suspects who robbed a Somali-owned shop in the area of R4 000 in cash as well as cigarettes and airtime on Monday.

But cop sources say even though the attacks were aimed at foreigners, they suspect that it might actually be fights over business territory and not related to xenophobic attacks which have flared up across the Western Cape in the past week.

In a similar incident in Worcester last week, two Somali men died and two others were wounded when their Avian Park tuck shop was attacked.

Police spokesperson Captain Mzikayise Moloi says no arrests have been made.

Meanwhile, De Doorns Police Station Commander Desmond van der Westhuizen says the area that was torn apart by attacks on Zimbabweans last year is relatively quiet.

"We have had no such incidents and we hope it stays that way," he says. - Daily Voice

Does Denying the Bark Mean the Dog Won't Bite?

Johannesburg, South Africa — For the past three months civil society organisations, academics and even some government officials have been warning that a new round of xenophobic attacks are coming soon after the World Cup has ended. Over the last two weeks, many of these same people have seen their world cup fever give way to a feverish effort to prevent (or at least prepare for) the forthcoming melee. No one has been readying themselves more fervently than migrants, many of whom have started packing and making their way to sites of safety either in South Africa or beyond its borders. Some have heard the dog barking and, remembering the brutal attacks of May 2008, fear its mortal bite.

Following last week’s meeting of the inter-ministerial committee dedicated to addressing the expected attacks, senior government officials have finally developed a coordinated, if somewhat ambivalent, approach to the relapse of xenophobic violence. Along with the firm (if fallacious) statements that South Africa is not a banana republic where people can murder with impunity –officials have been denying that the threats should be taken seriously. (South Africa may not be a banana republic, but only two of more than 60 murders during the 2008 attacks resulted in criminal conviction).

Just this week newspapers quoted President Zuma’s irresolute response: "I'm not certain whether there have been threats of xenophobia. I know that there have been rumours that have been reported." As of yet, he continued, there was no “concrete evidence” of attacks. The hundreds of Zimbabweans and others who are fleeing hostile communities are, if we are to believe what officials tell us, simply seasonal farm workers returning home. The attacks, which have already displaced scores of people to police stations in the Western Cape, are simply opportunistic criminality ‘disguised’ as xenophobia.

The Minister and Deputy Ministers of Police and others have accused ‘prophets of doom’ and ‘afropessimists’ of trying to rob South Africa and, presumably, the ANC of its World Cup glory by talking about xenophobia. This amounts to holding the long-term national security of the country to ransom for the short-term international reputation gained from wondrously hosting an athletic spectacle. The denialist rhetoric also belies the very real investment the government is making in police and army deployments in communities to prevent outbreaks or to respond to violence. Perhaps we should judge the government’s response by its actions rather than its words: in that case there is indeed much to commend and many lessons which have clearly been learned from 2008.

However, the words of senior politicians do have significant impacts. Stating that the attacks are ‘mere rumours’ or ‘mere crime’ is worrying on a number of levels. Most obviously, it reveals government leaders who are either deeply out of touch with their own intelligence and police services, or who are willing to publically prevaricate about acute threats to the security of the country’s residents. Police and intelligence services have been warning of rising tensions and the seriousness of threats since early in the year, well before any public or media discussions which are now accused of ‘creating’ or ‘fuelling’ violence. At what point do distributing threatening pamphlets, regular verbal threats in communities (some made openly into TV cameras and to newspaper journalists), and community meetings in which people outline their plans to get rid of foreigners constitute more than a rumour? Whatever the reasons for their response, all South African residents will be the losers.

What we have seen over the past few weeks is not only a government unwilling to acknowledge the threat of xenophobic violence, but an administration that seeks to overtly deny others the possibility of raising the warning flag. Claims that hateful murder are simply criminal opportunisms both echoes apartheid era claims that township violence was anything but political and distracts us from the issue at hand. To be sure, in South African law, any verbal threat or physical attack on life or dignity is a crime. Recognising this begs the question why there has not been a stronger and much earlier response from the security agencies. It seems that since the attacks are ‘merely’ criminal, our Minister of Police is suggesting that ‘normal’ criminality is not a problem or a priority.

Moreover, by denying ‘xenophobia’ as a motivation, the Inter-Ministerial Committee does not acknowledge and cannot explain why specific groups are targeted. Labelling an attack xenophobically motivated does not mean that all South Africans are consumed by bigotry and hatred. However, some people regularly single out specific groups for abuse, explicitly couching their threats in discriminatory language. If shouts of “you Makwerekwere get out” are, indeed, disguising’ alternative motivations, as Mthethwa suggests, local political and business interests are playing on existing sentiments and anger. These attacks may be criminal, but they ignore the tools - hatred, bigotry, and a willingness to turn to violence - than enable them. By shifting the blame for violence to purportedly ’unpatriotic’ or ‘afropessimist’ (read racist) individuals, media outlets, and institutions that speak openly about the violence, the Minister is taking aim at the messengers, not the perpetrators. This is surely a dangerous trend for a democratic country that is at least formally committed to a culture of open and public debate.

If we are lucky enough to avoid the conflagrations that caught hold in 2008, let us not forget that the dog has already bit. Just this week, a Ghanaian was shot down in the streets of Khayelitsha, flying straight in the face of the heart warming pan-African solidarity mustered during the World Cup. A few days earlier, passengers shouting insults against foreigners threw a Zimbabwean out of a moving train. How is that ‘opportunistic crime’? Moreover, hundreds if not thousands of people have fled their homes in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng out of fear. Such uprooting comes at significant costs to those on the run and to South Africa as a whole, illustrating a lack of confidence in the state’s ability to protect its residents. As much as the government deserves to bask in its World Cup victory, the international and continental media are already taking notice.

Which is worse for the country: violence and fear, or a government ready to deny that ethnic cleansing is being attempted on its watch? While the Minister of Police is right that the rest of the world is also grappling with the tensions of living with diversity, this does not reduce the urgency of finding locally appropriate ways of living with difference here. Denying that ethnic, national and other divisions exist will not help us in our search.

The lives and livelihoods of foreigners and other outsiders are now at risk. This should alarm us. What should worry us more are threats to political credibility and an open society where elected officials heed warnings, accurately identify and diagnose problems and treat the population - regardless of origins - with respect and provide them the security they deserve.

Landau and Polzer are Researchers with the Forced Migration Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa

- allAfrica.com

NGOs call on Zuma to recognise xenophobia

Officials seemed to be avoiding use of the word xenophobia in the hope that the violence in the Western Cape would subside, three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) charged.

"Many senior officials appear reluctant to use the term 'xenophobia' in the hope that this will result in violence subsiding"

"We call on local, provincial and national government to immediately recognise that individuals around Cape Town and the Western Cape are being targeted based on their nationality," they said in a statement.

The NGOs - the Social Justice Coalition, Equal Education and the Treatment Action Campaign - said they had learned of at least 15 incidents of "xenophobic criminal activity" in Khayelitsha alone since Sunday.

Most entailed looting of Somali-owned shops by roving gangs ranging from ten to 30 individuals.

A string of other incidents and threats had been reported from surrounding areas and towns.

They said Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had criticised what he called "this alarmist phobia", while President Jacob Zuma had said he was "not certain whether there have been threats of xenophobia".

"It appears that senior police and the intelligence services have failed to properly brief president Zuma and the Cabinet," the NGOs said.

"Many senior officials appear reluctant to use the term 'xenophobia' in the hope that this will result in violence subsiding."

They called on Zuma to lead and support efforts to prevent attacks on people from other African countries.

They said it was inconsequential to question whether the acts were being perpetrated out of hate or a desire to opportunistically commit criminal acts.

"None of this detracts from the fact that a specific group of people is being targeted, and are very much in need of particular protection." - SAPA

Local xenophobes still plague foreigners

On Monday night 1 000 Somalis congregated in Bellville after fleeing the townships and informal settlements where they operate shops and vendor stalls. If they could find sleep-over accommodation they would. If not, they said, they would sleep in the streets.

Monday was the coldest night of the year so far, but it was worth it to get out of the informal settlements around Cape Town where they have established businesses and homes.

Many of the Somali refugees reported they had been driven out of their homes in the course of the day by mobs of residents wielding sticks, throwing stones and hurling xenophobic abuse. Having driven the owners out, the mobs then looted the Somali-owned businesses.

On the same day, President Jacob Zuma told journalists in Joburg that no concrete evidence had yet come to light of an outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

In this, Zuma was echoing the South African Police Service, which - while mobilising to secure the townships and informal settlements - continues to treat crimes against foreigners as random offences.

The SAPS in the Western Cape has yet to establish a specialised investigations task team or unit to investigate such crimes against foreigners, and has reportedly also not yet briefed crime intelligence officers to get to the bottom of what is happening in the informal settlements.

What the police have done is to circulate a list of cellphone numbers of detectives or sector heads, to those affected, in the event that any incidents occur.

Thousands of Zimbabwean refugees have fled Cape Town's informal settlements in the past 10 days. Hundreds, with whatever possessions they have managed to take with them, line the N1 highway around truck stops, seeking transport back to the Zimbabwe from which they earlier fled.

Many others have just moved further afield, hoping to get out of the eye of the xenophobic storm in more remote or rural areas, the Cape Argus has learnt.

In the past two days groups of Zimbabweans have collected in Ceres and the depressed fishing town of Vredenburg.

But it is Somalis who occupy the unenviable position of being South African xenophobes' victims of choice. As Arabs in predominantly black areas they look different, they dress differently and they have different manners and customs. But it is appears to be mainly because they are traders and business people that they are targeted.

Somali nationals interviewed by the Cape Argus cited jealousy on the part of local business people as fomenting the hostility they experienced, but in general said that it was criminals and tsotsis - many acting at the behest of community leaders - who were directly responsible for robbing and terrorising them.

Last week four young people from the settlement of Bloekombos outside Kraaifontein, along with two local shopkeepers, were in the magistrate's court in Blue Downs, charged with attacks on local Somali traders. According to the State, the youths were hired by the local businessmen to kill Somali shopkeepers - at R60 a head, with a couple of straws of the drug tik thrown in. The businessmen, moreover, allegedly provided firearms to the youths - firearms which in terms of the alleged agreement would be returned after the killings were done.

The young people were, however, apprehended before the alleged hit could take place, and are charged only with robbery and conspiracy to murder. Legal fees for the businessmen accused are reportedly being paid by subscription among sympathetic business associates from the area.

Several Somalis also told the Cape Argus of alleged extortion and harassment by either police or people posing as police in the weeks leading to the recent looting experiences. In one such incident an Ethiopian, connected to the Somali networks, said his Dunoon business was robbed two weeks ago allegedly by people dressed in police uniforms driving a white unmarked sedan.

Claiming they were looking for drugs, the shopkeeper's assailants allegedly proceeded to empty out his cash drawer, as well as help themselves to stock, before binding him with cable ties and dumping him on the N7 highway.

Several Somalis in Dunoon are renting containers from unnamed local leaders that were seized from them in the 2008 cycles of xenophobic violence.

Though the initial wave of Somali immigration into South Africa, around the turn of the millennium, saw refugees established mainly in trading stalls in designated trader areas in Cape Town like Greenmarket Square and the Parade, from around the middle of the decade

Somali immigrants, having identified a market, increasingly moved into peri-urban and rural areas to set up business. They account for most of the retail trade in informal settlements around the province.

"We didn't come here looking to start businesses; we came here to flee the war in our country. But when we arrived here, we found no official help. We don't even have a Somali ambassador. We started small businesses to help feed ourselves and our families," said Mohammed Fatoule, spokesman for the Somali Retailers' Association.

To an extent this is attributable to a steep climb in numbers of Somalis in South Africa - largely because of South Africa's relatively liberal refugee laws. In terms of the Refugee Act, Somalis, because their country is internationally written off as a "failed state", are automatically granted refugee status and residence in South Africa.

What has placed them especially at risk, however, in the poverty-stricken informal settlements is the fact that, by and large, Somalis have been markedly successful in business.

Like many immigrant communities, they entered South Africa not as individuals or families, but in communities. In most cases immigration has been organised around the central figure of a maulana or other local religious leader. Such figures have tended to guarantee social cohesion, and to promote the pooling of resources - usually held in trust by the religious leader himself in order to buy goods in bulk while selling on the ground.

It is also known in the townships and the informal settlements that most Somalis do not - either for religious reasons or because their residence permits have not been finalised - operate bank accounts. Instead, they keep their money on their business premises or at home. Fatoule said at least 50 shops were looted and evacuated in the course of Monday night, while their owners took refuge in Bellville.

- Cape Argus

Scared foreigners to go back

Despite still feeling scared, many Somalis forced from informal settlements may head back to their homes on Thursday if there were no more threats.

"I've been in contact with people in Delft, Du Noon, Khayelitsha, Nyanga and other places and they've said we should come back. They say because our shops aren't there they must travel far and pay more money. The communities say they will protect us," Mahad Omar Abdi, chairman of the Somali Crisis Group said on Wednesday.

Since Sunday scores of foreigners from informal settlements around the province left their homes after receiving threats.

- Cape Times / IOL

Body found with penis hacked off

A Malawian man has been found dead in bushes with his penis hacked off.

Peter Shavula was last seen alive on Sunday evening during the World Cup final at a shebeen in Samora Machel.

But on Monday evening, his mutilated and naked body was found in bushes in the area with deep stab injuries to his neck and chest, and a piece of unidentified flesh was found a few metres from his corpse.

Police say the 33-year-old man's girlfriend last saw him with two friends before his body was found in the bushes used as a toilet by locals.

Peter's friend Bahati Phiri, 30, said he was worried when the young man didn't make it home on Sunday night.

"I helped to look for him because he had never gone missing before," he said.

"His girlfriend was approached by people who saw Peter's body in the bushes.

"I don't know if it was a xenophobic attack because no one else has been beaten or threatened in our area."

But when the Daily Voice visited the scene at around 6.30pm on Monday night, locals indicated that the attack was linked to the latest surge in xenophobic violence.

Nyanga police spokeswoman Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi said the incident was being investigated as a random murder and not an attack on foreign nationals.

Anyone with information is asked to call Nyanga cops at 021 380 3320 or Crimestop on 08600 10111. - Daily Voice

Foreigners 'chased like dogs'

Foreigners forced from informal settlements around the province are still too scared to return to their homes because they fear being attacked again.

"I'm not going back. I don't care if the police are there. I am scared. They've torn down my shop and my brothers who have gone back were threatened again. We will wait - maybe until next week," Abduragman Alikar, a Somali who ran a shop in Khayelitsha, said on Tuesday.

On Sunday and Monday scores of foreigners left a number of informal settlements around the province after being threatened. Some had had their shops looted.

Late on Monday in Nyanga fears of attacks against foreigners were further fuelled when the body of a 33-year-old Malawian, Peter Chavura, was discovered.

He had been murdered and his genitals cut off.

Nyanga police station spokeswoman Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi said the murder was not xenophobia-related.

She said Chavura had been drinking with his friends on Sunday at a shebeen in Samora Machel.

That was where his girlfriend last saw him but on Monday a resident told her his body had been discovered in bushes in the area.

Pictures of the scene show his genitals on grass near his body.

In another section of Nyanga late on Monday another Malawian man, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said he was kicked out his house after locals stoned it, then broke down the front door, before chasing him and his family out.

The Malawian said five of his friends had also been chased out the area. His employer, who did not want to be named for fear of jeopardising him, said the man was now no longer at his home and was staying with friends.

On Tuesday in Nyanga, foreign-owned shops were
either empty or locked up.

Franschhoek police station spokeswoman Marize Papier said all the foreign-owned shops in the area were also closed on Tuesday following a day of looting.

She said 53 foreigners were staying in a church there and would possibly go back home within the next few days.

In Grabouw, resident Rochelle Wegner also said a
number of Somali- and Nigerian-owned shops had
been looted and a number of foreigners had left the area.

Along the N1 on Tuesday near the Huguenot Tunnel, more than 20 Zimbabweans were waiting, trying to get transport out the province.

They had been at the roadside since the weekend
when many had been kicked out of informal settlements.

"It's the xenophobia that's forcing us away. I?m afraid, my friend. We came here on Sunday after they chased us out of Mbekweni (in Paarl).

"The people from there chased us like dogs.

"There's no work or food in Zimbabwe and I provide for my family from here.

"But I must go where it's safe," said a woman, who
wanted to be identified only as "Sarah" because she feared reprisals.

On Monday, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa visited the Western Cape to assess xenophobic attacks.

The minister said criminals were behind the incidents.

- Cape Times

Fear of violence drives exodus back to Zim

Families of Zimbabwean migrants have been fleeing South Africa because they fear xenophobic attacks now that the World Cup is over, an international aid agency said on Tuesday.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it was preparing for a "possible exodus of vulnerable Zimbabwean migrants fleeing threats of post World Cup xenophobic violence in South Africa".

South African security forces moved into townships in the Cape Town area on Monday after attacks and threats against foreign migrants workers. Scores of workers took refuge at police stations after shops run by migrants were looted.

The IOM had no figures for Zimbabweans crossing at the border town of Beitbridge in the past week, but said they had seen unusually high numbers of trucks laden with furniture and household goods, indicating people were leaving homes and jobs.

"People have clearly stated that they are returning indefinitely because of the fear of violence," IOM spokesperson Jared Bloch told a news briefing in Geneva.

More than 90% of 140 Zimbabwean migrants interviewed by the IOM at the weekend upon return to their homeland said that they had fled threats of violence. The other 10% said they had already suffered xenophobic violence.

The World Cup ended on Sunday.

South Africa has attracted millions of workers from across the continent who compete with locals for scarce jobs and resources. Two years ago more than 60 people were killed during anti-foreigner attacks.

"These are not idle threats people are responding to. They have a very real memory of what could happen," Bloch said.

An estimated 1,5-million to two million Zimbabweans work and live in South Africa, according to the Geneva-based IOM.

Its contingency plans include pre-positioning food and hygiene packs on the Zimbabwean side of the border and measures to speed processing of documents in case of a large influx.

Locals 'strategising' attacks
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has received more than 200 calls from distressed Zimbabweans fearing xenophobic attacks.

"Since Sunday, we've been receiving calls ... I received 207 calls from members of the party who say they can't go home," MDC spokesperson in South Africa Sibanengi Dube told reporters in Johannesburg.

"They said they were seeing locals standing in groups, strategising [to attack]."

Dube said the calls were from all corners of the country, but most of them came from the Western Cape.

"I received calls of individuals who claimed to have been beaten up," he said.

Environment in SA 'largely unchanged'
The SA Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday there had been little change in the environment that gave rise to the attacks in 2008.

Spokesperson Catherine Schulze said the institute was not predicting an outbreak of violence, as there was not enough information to do so.

But it was cautioning that the environment that gave rise to the attacks of 2008 was "largely unchanged".

"Poverty, unemployment, and incomes indicators have not shifted significantly since 2008, while high levels of crime and violence are an everyday reality in many poor communities.

"At the same time, reports of increased threats, some disguised as jokes and idle banter, created an enabling environment for a renewed series of attacks."

She said the institute urged the government and the African National Congress to use their leadership positions to change perceptions that many black South Africans harboured towards foreign African immigrants.

Senior government figures should make "concerted public statements" condemning xenophobia.

The institute's statement followed a series of incidents in the Western Cape, where on Sunday night a number of foreign-owned spaza and container shops in Cape Town and surrounding towns were burned and looted.

Some vandalism and attempted looting continued during the day on Monday in Khayelitsha, where police helped Somali shop owners remove their goods.

Police said on Tuesday morning however that the situation was "calm".

On Monday, President Jacob Zuma said though there had been rumours of planned new violence, he was not certain there had been actual threats.

He said the government had established a ministerial commission to deal with the situation and people "should not have fears". - Sapa, Reuters

Foreigners are 'scapegoats'

A failure of leadership and local government structures has created a fertile ground for the breeding of xenophobic violence in the Cape's informal settlements.

While a prompt show of force by law enforcement authorities - with the hardcore back-up of military armoured vehicles in risk areas such as Du Noon, Khayelitsha and Masiphumelele - appears to have headed off a threatened cycle of violence that erupted at the weekend, few think the problem is going to go away.

At the conclusion of the World Cup on Sunday, a sudden spike in attacks on foreigners in informal settlements around the Cape peninsula raised fears that a new cycle of xenophobic violence - like the conflagration that raged in 2008, when more than 60 people were killed - was about to be unleashed.

Nearly a dozen incidents of violence against foreigners - most of them Somali shopkeepers - were recorded between Sunday, the day of the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, and yesterday morning.

After the weekend's attacks, scores of Somalis have taken refuge in police stations and community halls around the Cape.

Zimbabweans continued to flee for their lives from informal settlements to congregate at makeshift places of refuge around highway truckstops and filling stations on the N1, seeking transport back to their country.

In their official responses, police dismissed the sudden spike in xenophobic violence as unconnected crimes.

However, the attacks have come in the midst of a whispering campaign in townships and informal settlements around the country, warning foreigners to leave South Africa before the end of the World Cup - or face the consequences.

In at least one instance, in Blikkiesdorp, this threat was conveyed via a meeting of the local community apparently convened by local leaders.

But in most cases the threat of violence has been voiced anonymously in the impersonal environment of taxis, trains and shebeens.

According to social conflict analyst Stef Snel, the tension can be traced back to basic economic circumstances and to a competition by communities for scarce resources.

"There isn't enough to go around, it is that simple - not enough housing, not enough jobs, not enough food," Snel said.

"And most of what there is comes in the form of government handouts, to be administered by often corrupt and unaccountable councillors and civic officials.

"Control over these resources is not only power, it is also profit. And the problem is that everything - from positions on housing lists to job creation programmes to food distribution initiatives - gets sold, and rather than alleviating the social problems, often exacerbates them.

"Then, when the community loses patience, the foreigners get blamed. They are the convenient scapegoats," he said.

The problem is not new. After the 2008 xenophobic attacks, the focus fell particularly on two elements in the social dynamic as breeding grounds for xenophobic violence: migrant workers at informal settlements; and a largely opportunistic leadership that had established itself in the ANC's onetime struggle alliance partner, the SA National Civics Organisation (Sanco).

In 2008, several Sanco leaders overtly supported the drive to expel foreigners from the country, and, in some cases were suspected of being behind the violence directed against them.

Chris Stali, Sanco provincial secretary, said threats against foreigners reflected "political immaturity and a lack of understanding of the issues".

"We have a new leadership now. The old leadership stole services and projects and when the community asked about jobs, they said they must ask the foreigners. Our leadership is different, we don't have our own political and financial interests."

But the new Sanco leadership is not having it all its own way.

In areas such as Du Noon, the former Sanco leadership - though suspended by Sanco nationally, and though last elected in 1997 (ostensibly for a single year term) - is refusing to stand down.

The chairperson of the "other" Sanco - who has also been named as fomenting xenophobic violence in the area - continues to administer a feeding programme in the area, which one youth league leader in the area said had never fed the hungry of Du Noon.

The youth leader, wanting to remain anonymous for fear of her safety, said the suspended Sanco leadership also continued to control the provision of RDP housing in the area.

- Cape Argus

Man killed hours after becoming new dad

A man was shot dead in a park in Luzuko in Gugulethu, hours after becoming a father to a baby boy.

Groups of fellow Ghanaians gathered at the park, just off Lansdowne Road, where the 35-year-old man's body lay.

Police spokeswoman Nondumiso Paul said the victim and a friend had received a phone call from a woman, asking them to meet her at a garage.

As they walked across the park, two men approached them.

One of the suspects pointed his gun at the pair and fired shots. The Ghanaian man was hit in the head and died instantly.

The attackers ran to a getaway "cockroach" taxi, and fled, said Paul.

Paul would not confirm if the murder was related to xenophobic violence.

- Cape Argus / IOL

Mutilated body found in bush

The mutilated body of a Malawian man was found in bushes near Samora Machel, Nyanga.

The naked body was found by passersby at about 5pm. He had been stabbed in the chest and neck.
His clothes were lying near his body.

The man's South African girlfriend was taken in for questioning by police, but later released.

Police spokeswoman Captain Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi was adamant the case did not involve xenophobic violence.

Police were investigating a murder, she said.

'The crime was definitely not related to the spate of xenophobic violence that broke out at the weekend,' she said.

- Cape Argus / IOL

All quiet in the Western Cape

There were no reported incidents of xenophobic violence in the Western Cape on Monday night, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"It's very quiet. There's nothing to report," said Captain Frederick van Wyk.

Police were however continuing their patrols in all areas where there had earlier been problems.

On Sunday night a number of foreign-owned spaza and container shops in Cape Town and surrounding towns were burned and looted.

Some vandalism and attempted looting continued during the day on Monday in Khayelitsha, where police helped Somali shop owners remove their goods.

Spokesperson for provincial disaster management Daniella Ebenezer said on Tuesday that the scores of foreigners who sought refuge at police stations on Sunday night all went home or to friends or relatives on Monday.

"It seems like the situation has really calmed down," she said.

She said there were "isolated incidents" on Monday in Wallacedene, Du Noon and Ocean View, all in Cape Town, and in Grabouw.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa visited the Western Cape on Monday for a briefing on the situation.

His ministry said after the visit that authorities would not tolerate "criminality disguised as xenophobia". - Sapa

Xenophobic violence is back

Last time, they cut his face open with a panga and destroyed his shop, but Ibrahim Mursal said the mood is worse this year.

The Somali trader is one of more than 100 displaced foreigners seeking refuge at a camp site outside Wellington, north of Cape Town, following renewed xenophobic violence across Western Cape.

He and his friends said they would rather risk the war at home than the "war" in South Africa - but they can't find a way back.

Also yesterday, at least 60 Zimbabweans were camped outside a truck-stop on the N1, just outside Cape Town, desperate for a lift back to Harare.

Amid brewing tension in several townships in and around Cape Town, local government officials and politicians raced to quell talk of a "second uprising" against foreigners after the World Cup.

Somalis, Ethiopians and Zimbabweans have been the main targets.

"The first time, I was in Mitchell's Plain, but this is worse," said Mursal, whose face bears witness to the first wave of xenophobic attacks two years ago in which at least 62 people were killed countrywide.

". Now you even see coloured people [attacking]. Before it was only the blacks. Maybe now the whites are also coming," he said.

But the police and community leaders yesterday remained adamant that security forces would not allow a repeat of the tragic events.

The army has already been deployed in some hot-spots, and civil society leaders are calling for the deployment of the police recruits deployed for the World Cup.

"Yes, we do have a situation on our hands," confirmed Drakenstein Municipality's Tommy Matthee.

"But what has happened here is not the result of the community, but of a few individuals acting in a criminal manner under the disguise of xenophobia. In the main, it is shops that have been looted."

Matthee said his municipality had identified four hot-spots to which leaders would be sent to speak to residents.

He said three incidents were reported in the Silvertown area yesterday morning. There were several incidents on Sunday night in Phillipi and Langa, in Cape Town, and in Mbekweni, near Paarl.

Edgar Jennecke's daughter was shot in the hand during the violence in Mbekweni - which means "respect" in Xhosa.

"They were plundering the containers ... when the police arrived the shooting started. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

Matthee said the police had opened criminal cases against some of the looters.

The ANC added its voice yesterday. In a strongly worded statement, the party said: "Xenophobia is a crime against humanity and the perpetrators should be isolated."

But several foreigners yesterday said the government was failing them on several fronts, including the slow pace of registering asylum seekers and lack of protection.

The temporary displacement camp at Antoniesvlei, between Wellington and Ceres, was without food yesterday afternoon.

"South Africa is a big government in Africa. They can bring a solution," said Mursal.

- Times Live

Foreigners seek refuge at police stations

A heavy police and military presence has been deployed in Western Cape townships following sporadic xenophobic violence, police said on Monday.

Provincial authorities said scores of foreigners had sought refuge at police stations in the region.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said that on Sunday night there were "sporadic incidents of looting" at shops belonging to foreigners.

Areas where this occurred included Nyanga, Philippi East and Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats, Wellington, Paarl East, Mbekweni (a Paarl township), Franschhoek and Klapmuts.

"Police responded and a heavy police contingency was deployed in conjunction with Metro Police and SANDF [the defence force] in all these areas," Van Wyk said.

He said seven men, aged between 19 and 30, had been arrested in the Nyanga area.

They were charged with public violence and would appear in the Phillipi Magistrates' Court on Monday.

"SAPS [the police] will continue to deploy in high numbers to maintain law and order in the mentioned areas," he said.

"Tranquillity has been restored and no further reports of violence have been reported."

Spokeswoman for provincial disaster management Daniella Ebenezer said earlier that 70 foreigners had sought refuge overnight at Mbekweni police station in Paarl and 22 at Wellington.

There were smaller numbers at police stations in Franschhoek, and Langa and Harare on the Cape Flats.

They had gone to the stations "mainly because they were fearful", but in some instances following attacks on shops.

Ebenezer said there were "sporadic" attacks on shops on Saturday in the region, and "some incidents of looting" on Sunday.

No-one had been seriously injured.

She said that according to reports from police, on Sunday spaza shops and containers also used as shops were "damaged" in Mbekweni, Paarl East, Wellington and Nyanga.

The province and municipalities were ready with contingency plans, she said.

Die Burger newspaper reported on Monday that shortly before midnight on Sunday, police advised foreigners, mainly Somalis, to leave the Cape Flats township of Nyanga, and escorted numbers of them out of the area.

The newspaper carried a photograph of Somali spaza shops in flames in Philippi, also on the Cape Flats.- Sapa

'They should all leave and f*** off'

A meeting that was meant to unite residents of the Ramaphosa informal settlement turned ugly last night when locals voiced their hatred of foreigners.

"Why should I suffer in my own country? They should all leave and f*** off," a man screamed into the microphone.

The thousand-strong audience cheered in response.

But this was just one of dozens of hateful comments, many suggesting that unless the government removes the foreigners, violence could erupt.

The meeting, led by the International Community Unifiers (ICU), community leaders and local government, was interrupted constantly by residents' stories of their terrible encounters with foreigners.

A member of the audience described his experience when he was robbed at gunpoint.

It was when ICU president Dennis Mpangane took the stage to speak to the crowd that the audience turned ugly.

He began by mentioning that he was not originally from South Africa, to which the audience responded with hundreds of shouts of "hamba" and "Go home".

Mpangane, unable to be heard over the screams of the crowd, then chose not to speak for the rest of the meeting.

A local priest, Reverend Brian Lehoko, and a police superintendent, known only as Mathebula, managed to calm the audience after the interruption.

Mathebula called on the residents to report any violent crimes, especially xenophobic attacks, to the police as soon as possible.

"The police will be here day and night," he added.

The meeting also addressed service delivery issues that resulted in a protest earlier this year, and it was during these complaints that residents began to speak against xenophobia.

"We had two agendas today: service delivery and xenophobia," announced a resident, "but service delivery projects will be put on hold if (xenophobic violence) happens."

The community was again promised by ward councillor Craig Bennetts and representatives from the Department of Housing that plans to tackle the road, sewerage and electricity issues were "on the move".

After the meeting, when the crowd dispersed, Mpangane said: "The meeting went as well as it could have. The community were angry about service delivery and I couldn't speak, but they do understand the (xenophobia) situation."

Ramaphosa residents were one of the centres of violence two years ago.

Somali shopkeeper Abdi Ismael has lived in Ramaphosa for four years, and was greatly affected by the xenophobic violence in 2008.

"I had three shops," he said, "but I had to leave (Ramaphosa) when the attacks started. When I returned (several months later), they had all been looted and vandalised."

Ismael has been threatened - again. "Come the end of the World Cup, you'll be leaving," warned a client of his.

"Others have told me 'this shop will be ours'," said Ismael.

"Of course I'm worried, but the community will try its best to be on top of the situation. I'm just hoping the words won't escalate into violence." - The Star

Mob ransacks Somali-owned shop

A Somali-owned shop has been ransacked just metres away from where the National Police Commissioner was making an anti-xenophobia speech.

While Nathi Mthethwa told the Khayelitsha community that people who attacked foreigners risked the full might of the law, a crowd of about 200 people was looting a shop nearby.

When the Daily Voice arrived at the scene, shopkeeper Deego Mohamed was frantically packing what was left of his stock into a car.

Mohamed said the mob entered his shop shortly after 1pm on Friday and started helping themselves.

"One of them was armed with a gun and he told me to shut up while others were taking the groceries," he said.

Police spokeswoman Nosiphiwo Mtengwana said another shop in the area hurriedly packed up as well after the news of the first attack spread.

However, locals who attended Mthethwa's meeting vowed to protect foreigners living amongst them.

Community leader Michael Hamco told the Daily Voice that those who attack foreigners are nothing but thugs.

"These are just criminals who roam the street and have nothing to do," he said.

"We will protect the foreign nationals. We don't want anyone who has the intention of attacking the foreigners living here with us."

A fired-up Mthethwa told the crowd of about 500 people, which included Somalis, that criminals considering attacking foreigners would face the full might of the law.

"The police will take these things very seriously," he vowed.

"The people who are behind this are criminals."

- Daily Voice

Cops move to protect foreign nationals

Police have been deployed in several townships on the Western Cape province of South Africa to protect foreign nationals after escalating threats of violence against them, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

Signs of social instability could potentially harm South Africa's image and investor sentiment, undoing the gains of hosting a successful soccer World Cup tournament that ended on Sunday.

Police said the situation in the Western Cape province was tense but there have not been injuries so far.

"There were two shacks that were burned in separate areas and there's been sporadic incidents of looting and threats have been made on foreign nationals," said Western Cape police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk.

"Police have responded. At this moment there is a heavy police contingent (in several areas) which also includes Metro police and SANDF (South African National Defence Force)," he added.

The biggest economy in Africa has attracted millions of workers from across the continent and further afield, but their presence is not always welcomed by those locals who compete with them for scarce jobs and resources.

Two years ago more than 60 people were killed during anti-foreigner attacks.

Police in Gauteng said there had not been incidents against foreigners in the economic hub of South Africa. - Reuters

Foreigners continue to leave in fear of attacks

DESPITE assurances by government officials that everything was being done to avert tragic xenophobic attacks similar to those of two years ago, nervous foreigners continue to leave.

In Cape Town yesterday, hundreds of Zimbabweans made their way to the Paarl tunnel on the N1 highway, about 80km outside of Cape Town.

They have been leaving since Monday.

When Sowetan arrived about 40 Zimbabweans had managed to get a ride on an empty bus, which had just dropped off World Cup fans in Cape Town.

The driver of the bus, headed for Durban, said he would drop the Zimbabweans off in Bloemfontein, where they would look for transport to Johannesburg.

In Gugulethu more than 10 Somali shopkeepers have fled the area. Their shops have already been vandalised, Mncedisi Twalo of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign said.

“We are expecting the government to communicate with the community instead of using the rumours as a scapegoat. When elections come it is the only time we become important,” Twalo said.

In Alexandra, Johannesburg, a police source said they would begin intense round the clock patrols from next week.

“The problem seems to be at the RDP houses section, where locals are complaining that foreigners have houses, while they are on a long waiting list. We foresee problems there.

“We will be patrolling those areas and the rest of Alexandra to make sure that no xenophobic attacks erupt like they did in 2008,” the police official told Sowetan.

At a new RDP section people were seen moving into the new houses allocated to them.

Residents of the Ramaphosa informal settlement in Ekurhuleni confirmed that soldiers had patrolled the area on Wednesday.

Reiger Park police station communication officer Toni Perifort said the patrols by the soldiers were meant to send a message that law enforcement agencies were on high alert and to encourage residents to abide by he law.

- SOWETAN

Khayelitsha attacks 'not xenophobic'

A foreign national was shot dead and two others were wounded in a shooting incident on Saturday in Khayelitsha near Cape Town, Western Cape police said.

However, Captain Frederick van Wyk said the incident was not a xenophobic attack.

He said the three foreigners, who are all shop owners, were on their way from Khayelitsha to buy stock at Philippi Cash and Carry when they were hijacked at a traffic light.

The three suspects drove the bakkie to Sweethome Farms and robbed them of an undisclosed amount of money before shooting them.

One of them was killed instantly while the two others who were wounded were taken to hospital.

Van Wyk said police were investigating a case of murder, attempted murder and hijacking.

"This is regarded as a crime incident and cannot be attributed to violence at a certain foreign national," he said. - Sapa