Hout Bay foreigners threatened

Cape Town - Foreigners who went on a manhunt for killers of a Congolese man in Hout Bay are now allegedly being threatened by a gang of “young criminals”.

The gang have been terrorising the community of Imizamo Yethu, where 27-year-old Nchikala Ngoy was robbed and murdered.

Ngoy moved from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to South Africa a year ago and had been studying business economics.

Three men robbed Ngoy on his way home from Hout Bay Library on Wednesday last week.

He was stabbed eight times in the back and head and left for dead in Main Road just metres from the police station.

A 25-year-old man, believed to be Malawian, and an 18-year-old were also stabbed to death in Imizamo Yethu last month.

The incidents left foreigners in the area seething and a group were seen storming through the informal settlement looking for Ngoy’s killers on Thursday.

Zimbabweans, Ghanaians, Malawians, Ugandans, Angolans and Congolese swept through the area, beating up an 18-year-old before handing him over to police.

Geoffrey Kavuma, 29, a Ugandan who spoke on behalf of the foreigners, said on Saturday that members of the local gang had threatened to attack the foreigners who had gone on a manhunt last week.

“They told us they will come looking for us and that they were trying to find out where we live.

“Everything is fine with the locals here, but it’s just these thugs who are targeting us,” he said.

Ngoy’s brother Valery told the Cape Times that the “young thugs” were being protected by their families.

He said the gang targeted locals and foreigners, but that locals do not get stabbed or injured because the gangsters feared being necklaced.

Imizamo Yethu Community Policing Forum (CPF) deputy chairperson Vincent Sodlala said the CPF was aware of a gang of under-18s in the area.

“I can imagine that these young criminals have now made threats. They are minors who need help because they are addicted to drugs and have now turned to crime.

“The drugs, their rehabilitation and the social issues here need to be addressed,” Sodlala said.

Western Cape Community Safety MEC Dan Plato visited the community on Friday.

“We all need to ask ourselves what we, individually, can do to help make my own immediate environment safer. I urge our communities to use the available structures like the neighbourhood watches and the community policing forums,” he said.

Police spokesperson Thembinkosi Kinana said three men “aged between 18 and 19” are to appear in court on Monday on murder charges.

* UCT has pointed out that Nchikala Ngoy was not a student there as reported, but his family insists he was

carlo.petersen@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Foreigners hunt killers in Hout Bay

Cape Town - A group of foreigners went on a manhunt in Hout Bay on Thursday, storming through the streets of Imizamo Yethu informal settlement as they sought the killers of a Congolese man.

Nchikala Ngoy, 23, was stabbed eight times in the back and head after being robbed on his way home from Hout Bay Library on Wednesday evening.

The UCT student – who left the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for South Africa a year ago – had been studying and was on his way back to his shack in Imizamo Yethu.

Ngoy was killed close to “The White House”, a derelict, city-owned building residents say harbours criminals. The area around the building is a crime hot spot. The Hout Bay Civic Association (HBCA) has been asking the city to deal with the building since 2011, by either demolishing it or putting it to good use.

The association’s secretary, Roscoe Jacobs, said the city was aiding and abetting crime by failing to deal with its own problem building.

When the Cape Times visited the area on Thursday, residents were gathering at the Hout Bay police station, where they had handed over a man suspected of being involved in another murder. The man, accused of murdering a Malawian man two weeks ago, was badly beaten up.

Imizamo Yethu residents in Hout Bay joined foreigners on their manhunt on Thursday. Picture: Brenton GeachCAPE TIMES

Police spokesperson Thembinkosi Kinana could not confirm any arrests on Thursday, saying reports of xenophobia and mob justice were “unconfirmed”.

“A case of murder has been opened and three suspects are being sought. The motive appears to be robbery as a cellphone was stolen,” he said.

Ngoy’s brother Valery said the mob consisted of Congolese, Zimbabweans, Ghanaians, Malawians, Ugandans and Angolans, who came together on Thursday after being continuously “targeted for crime”.

He said a group of young men, who were known criminals in the community, were being protected by their families. “They get arrested and then come back shortly afterwards because they are juveniles. We know who they are.

“The locals get robbed too, but they don’t get stabbed or injured. The robbers fear the reaction from their people will be worse. They know they will be necklaced,” Valery said.

“The locals are fine with us, it’s the thugs who are a problem. This is a crime issue, but their families also support them so it’s difficult to say whether this is xenophobia.”

The Cape Times witnessed the group sweep through the area, venting their anger while residents looked on.

Police said another suspect had been arrested and that others had allegedly handed themselves over after fearing for their lives.

Jacobs condemned the city on Thursday, saying its failure to demolish the White House was aiding crime.

“It is the view of the HBCA that the city has failed to apply the very ‘broken windows’ theory it teaches to neighbourhood watches.

“The success of this theory is to fix the problems when they are still small and the city has failed to do this.

“The community, led by the Community Policing Forum, has been calling for this house to fall since 2011,” Jacobs said.

Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said metro police and law enforcement were aware of the problem and were patrolling the area.

The city’s Problem Building Unit was dealing with over 1 900 buildings and had concluded more than 5 000 complaints, with many successes. “There are many crime hot spots in every ward,” Smith said.

He said the building would soon be boarded up before possibly being demolished.

carlo.petersen@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

‘Xeno attack destroyed my life’

Johannesburg - It is Africa Day, but George Djedje has nothing to celebrate – only looming financial ruin.

A month ago, the Mozambican had a flourishing panelbeating and spraypainting business in Joburg’s CBD until the neighbouring Zulu hostel rose up in xenophobic madness.

Djedje literally saw his business go up in flames as the mob torched his clients’ vehicles.

Now those clients want him to pay them R200 000 for their cars which were uninsured, plus he needs to find R950 every month to go home to get treatment for his skin cancer.

President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday formally apologised to his Mozambican counterpart President Filipe Nyusi for the death of Mozambicans during the recent wave of xenophobia.

On Sunday, Zuma led the Africa Day celebrations at the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi West campus, calling for unity among Africans. He denied that South Africans were xenophobic and blamed criminal elements for the recent xenophobic outbreaks.

But it’s scant comfort for Djedje.

“Sometimes, I am too scared to answer my phone when I see it’s my customers calling, because I know they want money and I don’t have it. They say they need their cars. When I tell them that I don’t have money, they say I must make a plan,” the 39-year-old says.

After 17 years in South Africa, Djedje had managed to build himself a small business and amassed a small clientele.

But, in the early hours of April 16, he received a call about trouble at his workshop in Jeppestown.

He rushed there to find chaos. People had broken into his workshop, pushed three cars outside and set them alight.

The mob also got into the workshop and vandalised other vehicles, before setting the building on fire and taking Djedje’s tools.

With a sense of disbelief, Djedje called his clients. When the clients arrived at the scene to find the cars they had saved for so long to buy going up in flames, they cried.

A case was opened at the nearby Jeppe police station.

Djedje said the events of that night have destroyed his life.

He lost his clientele and prospective customers as no one wants to do business with him anymore.

Once in a while when he gets a client, he asks his uncle to lend him his tools and space to work in.

But customers who lost their cars in the fire are constantly on his mind.

“When their calls come, I just become miserable. I don’t know what to say to them anymore.

“One of my lady customers whose car was also burnt, came with her three brothers who asked me when I am going to pay. I don’t know what I am going to do. I have to start from scratch and it is not easy,” Djedje said.

Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said some people had been arrested for the violence in that area. But he could not confirm whether the people who destroyed Djedje’s business were among them.

A lawyer said the first obvious recourse for Djedje would be to claim damages from the people who destroyed his business, if they were caught. But the chances were that the perpetrators probably did not have money.

The second course of action involved suing the government and the minister of police for failing to protect foreigners and their property by not nipping the xenophobic violence in the bud immediately after it erupted.

“It is possible to sue, but it is a very difficult case as he would have to ask himself whether the police or the government could be held responsible. He would have to show a causal link between the police failing to protect him and his business and the hooligans destroying it,” he said.

botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za

- The Star

Zuma: Media blew up xeno attacks

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has criticised the media for “exaggerating” events and adopting a negative stance in reporting on the xenophobic attacks which recently rocked the country.

Zuma was speaking at the Africa Day celebrations at the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi West Campus where he urged the promotion of an African identity in every aspect of life.

“South Africans are not xenophobic. There are elements of criminality where xenophobia is used as an excuse to rob people,” Zuma said.

“It’s important that we do not live in the mindset of the media because there were nationals from other countries who fought in our Struggle and even went to Robben Island.

“If we don’t understand our connectivity as Africans then we have a problem,” Zuma said to a cheering crowd.

He also called for unity among Africans and said Africa Day bears a special meaning to South Africans and the role they should play within the continent.

“Starting from today, every community and institutions must practice the African Union anthem and must be able to sing it at all gatherings and celebrations,” he said.

“Africa Day is a celebration of African progress. We have a lot to celebrate and we have a lot to look forward to. It is also a day to reflect on the challenges that still remain. Africa Day is a celebration of African unity,” Zuma said.

He said this would be an integral component of reclaiming the identity of Africans and moving away from the oppression created by the apartheid regime.

“This is part of reclaiming our identity. We can’t be suppressed by the racist notion of the apartheid regime,” he said.

“Hundreds of people bused in from various parts of Tshwane were in attendance.

Among those present were the Minister of International Affairs Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, AU chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, City of Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa and Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa.

Dlamini Zuma, who took the podium before Zuma, said South Africans needed to be aware that 60 percent of tourists travelling to South Africa are Africans who contribute to the country’s economy.

“For the past two years I have been living in Ethiopia and I have never been made to feel as though I was a foreigner or I was a migrant.

“What happened here was painful to me. We must stop the aberration of beating up others because they are from other parts of the continent,” said Dlamini-Zuma.

She said the country’s liberation Struggle and freedom are reflected by the freedom celebrated by the rest of the continent.

“Our fortunes in Africa are intertwined.

“The past generation freed us, the next generation must be responsible for integration,” she said.

Before the festivities began, people were entertained outside the hall by a group called Udumo Entertainment from Mamelodi.

The Pretoria News team spoke to some of the group members who are aged between 9 and 18 about what Africa Day means to them.

Dikeledi Mokone said the day should not only be celebrated once a year, but should be entrenched in the identity of Africans.

“We need to live as Africans and celebrate who we are every day in the way we carry ourselves and in the way we treat our fellow African brothers and sisters,” Mokone said.

The Sonke Gender Justice Project urged the South African Government to take urgent steps to repair relations with other countries in Africa, and to embrace African unity amid xenophobic violence and government crackdowns targeting African and Asian migrants in South Africa.

“We acknowledge and support minister Mthethwa’s response to xenophobia, both in terms of the launching of Africa Month as a way to promote African unity, and in terms of his comments challenging discrimination and calling for African unity and co-operation.

“However, we draw attention to the mixed messages the government has been sending about its commitment to African unity.

“It condemns xenophobia in one breath, and then blatantly stigmatises foreign nationals by introducing raids (Operation Fiela) that target them, deploying the army, and opening deportation camps.

“This serves only to deepen wrong and dangerous ideas that foreign nationals are criminals and deserve to be sent back to their countries,” it said in a statement.

- Pretoria News

Operation Fiela like ‘ethnic cleansing’

Speaking in Yeoville, Johannesburg, on Saturday morning civil society activists including expelled Cosatu general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, have slammed government’s Operation Fiela, as similar to ethnic cleansing.

Zimbabwean activist, Elinor Sisulu, said the operation – a joint effort by SA Police Service, the army and the Department of Home Affairs – was a kind of “ethnic cleansing” in which foreign migrants to South Africa were being treated like criminals.

“Any state operation which was the image of cleaning or cleansing I find very disturbing, and I think the timing of it is absolutely unfortunate. Even if there was any merit in the operation, the timing (of Operation Fiela) is completely wrong,” Sisulu told Independent.

“There’s been ethnic cleansing. In Rwanda there was talk of cleaning out ‘cockroaches’ and I’ve actually heard people talking about cleaning out (here).”

She said the arrest of car guards- lumped together with people carrying out smash and grabs - meant innocent people were being caught up with the rounding up of criminals.

She said last month’s xenophobic attacks were similar to the xenophobic attacks of 2008.

Vavi said he was attending this morning’s event, hosted by the African Diaspora Forum, to pass on condolences and commemorate the deaths of foreigners in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

“We are taking the opportunity to highlight the need to continuously educate our people about the dangers of xenophobia, violence, the dangers of racism rearing its ugly head,” he said.

“We are here to mobilise our people to stop using workers from the African continent as the scapegoats to the South African challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.”

He said the government’s response to this year’s attacks was “absolutely disgusting” because Operation Fiela showed the prejudices held by South Africans against migrant workers.

- Labour Bureau

Hostels must fall, says housing minister

Lindiwe Sisulu wants to tear down South Africa’s notorious hostels – the scene of much of the xenophobic rioting in Joburg last month.

Indunas, the hostel leaders, have warned though that they won’t be part of anything that does not guarantee them proper houses – and they refuse to go into temporary shelters while the government breaks down existing hostels and builds new ones.

On Thursday, at a pre-budget vote, the human settlements minister said told MPs during her budget vote that hostels had to go because they had no place in a reconfigured state.

“Most of them (hostel residents) have spent a great deal of their time in cities. That they may have a holiday home in Mqanduli (in the Eastern Cape) doesn’t make them different from someone with a holiday home in Camps Bay who works in Brakpan,” she said.

Hostel residents would qualify either for a state-subsidised house, or community residential unit. It was time for South Africa to shed lingering legacy of apartheid and deal with the often atrocious living conditions in hostels: “They (hostels) are a very painful relic of our past... They (hostel residents) should live as part of society,” said Sisulu.

But in Alexandra’s Madala hostel, induna Bafowethu Sokhela said on Thursday ight: “What she’s saying has been said for years by many other politicians. Right now, they’re supposed to be developing the hostel as they said they would – but they’re doing nothing.”

He has lived in the hostel since the 1980s.

“The hostel has many people living in it. I don’t think they’ll have enough space to house us all. We won’t allow them to put us in temporary homes. We want houses just like other people in the country.”

Sokhela said the government must house every Madala hostel resident before it shut the place.

“They need to come in and get everyone’s information and move us into houses block by block if they have to. But they can’t close it till we have houses.”

The decision comes on the back of the refusal by residents of some Gauteng hostels to move into upgraded buildings, renovated from the apartheid-era single male accommodation into family units since 2009.

Following the upgrade, residents had to pay R750 a month.

Hostel residents complained they hadn’t been properly consulted and couldn’t afford the monthly rental.

Diepkloof, Soweto, hostel residents took to the streets to protest over housing on Monday.

This was the second protest by the hostel dwellers in Diepkloof following a protest in the area in June last year over lack of housing.

In Parliament, Sisulu said the government would like to “gradually abolish hostels in our towns, and hostel dwellers who have lived in our towns for a number of years would qualify for a Breaking New Ground house, or the CRU (community residential units) subsidy, depending on their specific circumstances”.

She said they had agreed with the mayors that upgraded hostels would be taken over by the Social Housing Regulatory Authority.

“This we will do in every town where we have upgraded hostels and hostel dwellers have not taken up residency.”

She said the government would accommodate hostel dwellers in temporary shelters while it put up permanent houses for them.

These social housing units would be given to young people under the age of 40 and who cannot afford to buy a house.

Sisulu said the recent raids on hostels in Jeppe and Alexandra in Joburg during xenophobic violence were not because they were targeting hostel dwellers.

The army and police raids at the hostels were a result of the violence emanating from those areas.

“We don’t associate them with evil,” she said.

The minister said there was no fixed date for the plan to complete the abolishment of hostels.

Surveys would be done on all the hostels throughout the country.

Subsequently, Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo told The Star the survey had already been undertaken and would finalised by next Friday.

DA MP Makashule Gana said houses built for hostel dwellers in Diepkloof and Mzimhlophe in Soweto were still empty after more than 10 years.

The national Department of Human Settlements is shifting its focus to mega-projects in order to tackle the country’s 1.5 million-unit housing backlog.

About 150 project applications have been received from the public and private sectors.

These would be processed to get under way over the next four years.

Sisulu said 60 percent of work would be done by youth brigades, funded by a ringfenced R159m, in an effort to transfer skills and create employment opportunities for young people.

However, the Human Settlements Department is also undertaking a review of its tender processes, described as its “biggest headache”, to prevent corruption and fraud.

A new procurement system should prevent abuse.

- Political Bureau and The Star

Xenophobic violence ‘under control’

State Security Minister David Mahlobo has assured the country that the government has contained the xenophobic violence.

He dismissed the argument by the opposition that there was intelligence failure, insisting that the genesis for the xenophobic violence was an industrial dispute.

Mahlobo told journalists in Parliament on Tuesday, before his budget vote speech, that the situation was under control after the government intervened.

South Africa was gripped by xenophobic violence a few weeks ago that left more than half a dozen people dead, including three South Africans.

Mahlobo said their response to flush out criminals, through an intensive operation with the police and other departments, had been welcomed by citizens.

The SAPS, Home Affairs and intelligence agencies have raided hotspots to root out criminals and illegal immigrants.

Mahlobo said State Security’s focus was also to monitor other threats facing the country.

“We want to reassure South Africans that the country does not face any discernable threats. We will continue to work hard and remain vigilant at all times,” he said.

The xenophobic violence had been sparked by an industrial dispute in Isipingo, Durban, where a shopowner fired locals and hired foreigners, he said.

During the debate on the budget vote, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa called on Mahlobo to tighten intelligence agencies.

He said the country was caught on the back foot when sporadic violence broke out.

Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald called on Mahlobo to apologise to the nation for the intelligence failure to pick up the violence on foreigners.

He said the intelligence had agencies slept on the job when the xenophobic violence started.

Mahlobo dismissed claims that there was an intelligence failure, saying it was an industrial dispute that escalated into a security matter.

He added the government would deal with crime whenever it reared its head.

“As South Africa, we should refuse to be part of the unnecessary attacks on innocent people merely because they happen to be foreigners,” Mahlobo said.

“We know very well that it is incorrect to argue that crime is committed mainly by non-South Africans. Even if we suspect or have evidence that some people are engaged in crime, we should work with the police so that these criminals are arrested.”

- The Star

Xenophobia today, genocide tomorrow?

The condemnations and demonstrations sound similar to those of 2008. So what ought to change? asks Tokyo Sexwale.

Durban - The dust is settling after the xenophobic fallout over the past weeks in South Africa. This sad episode competed for global headlines with, inter alia, clashes in the US, Chile’s volcano eruption, the Nepalese earthquake and African migrant’s misery in Europe.

As South Africans, we must avoid the comfort zone of hiding our shame behind negative headlines elsewhere.

We need to pose the right questions; how did we end here again? What happened to experiences from the xenophobia of 2008, which captured headlines through the horror of a Mozambican being burnt alive?

Today’s narrative – the condemnations and demonstrations, though positive – sound similar to those of 2008. So what ought to change? Are we doing the correct analyses and implementing the appropriate solutions?

Xenophobia was central at last year’s Johannesburg summit of Global Watch – Say No To Racism-Discrimination In All Sport.

The summit was addressed by among others, President Jacob Zuma and former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe.

It was endorsed by several Nobel Laureates and distinguished luminaries like Fifa’s Sepp Blatter, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, struggle veteran Ahmed Kathrada, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and others.

Although Global Watch is focused on eradication of prejudices from sport, the summit concluded that these are essentially societal evils. The high calibre of attendees was the world’s reaffirmation of South Africa as the torchbearer against intolerance, as apartheid was defeated here.

The Summit Global Charter, states: “Global Watch is concerned about the unsettling and rising trend of social evils… undermining our common humanity.

“These negatives take the form of inter alia – racial bigotry, cultural divisions, gender discrimination, religious intolerance, ethnic strife, nationalistic hatred and xenophobia.”

Thus in dealing with the current situation, a leaf may be taken from the proposed three sets of measures adopted at the summit. These are Education-Awareness-Advocacy; Monitoring-Analysing-Prevention; Cautions-Sanctions-Legal Action.

Today many are posing the same question: What is wrong in South Africa? They also recall that the world had in 2001 assembled here for the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” which produced the UN Durban Declaration.

Thus the world is, indeed, justified in expressing grave concern about the turn of events.

However, we can state, unequivocally, that constitutionally and institutionally South Africa still remains very much opposed to racism and all prejudices.

Unlike the apartheid crime which was government driven, the government is opposed to xenophobia.

The few criminal elements who take advantage of the misery of the poor in South Africa, including economic immigrants, have no place in our society.

The communities, civil society and government, as recently seen, showed a united front against xenophobia.

Law enforcement agencies are acting against perpetrators.

The concern is that of low numbers of convictions by the justice system. This ought to change drastically.

Notwithstanding, the following issue arises: Despite South Africa being signatory to international protocols protecting refugees, is the policy of border controls and management being appropriately implemented? Concerning the possible increased inflow of desperate migrants, like in Europe, what plans are there to address the potential refugee crisis to prevent future xenophobic incidents?

Regarding the thorny issue of the “rampaging-rhino-in-the-room,” three questions arise: First, hasn’t the time arrived, in all sincerity, to cast the searchlight upon the man-made inhumane conditions prevalent in the countries from where people are fleeing into South Africa; and also into Europe from the African continent?

Second, is it not about time to similarly focus the spotlight upon those responsible for creating such conditions?

Third, should perpetrators continue to enjoy the limelight despite numerous condemnatory resolutions of international organisations, such as the UN and the AU?

Indeed, South Africa owes its development to many nationalities from across the world.

Some arrived as colonialists, others as economic migrants and others as refugees. However, it has mainly been developed upon the cheap labour of its own people and of fellow Africans.

On achieving independence, African states, like others elsewhere, also provided support to South Africans who fled from the apartheid regime.

This history must never be forgotten. The ignorant need to be educated. Hence the call for African solidarity and unity.

Today xenophobia targets those from outside national borders.

Next, those outside provincial ones.

Someday those outside tribal boundaries. It knows no borders...

The grim lessons of Rwanda still haunt us. The xenophobia of today is the genocide of tomorrow. Those who fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its terrible mistakes.

The powerful words of Nelson Mandela should be heeded.

“Never, never, never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world! Let freedom reign. The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement. God bless Africa.”

* Tokyo Sexwale is president of Global Watch.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

- Daily News

SA's xenophobia shame: 'burning man' case shut

Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave was beaten, stabbed and set alight in Ramaphosa informal settlement almost seven years ago.

Yet nobody has been arrested for his gruesome murder and, thousands of kilometres away in Mozambique, his wife still awaits justice.

Nhamuave, who was 35 years old, became known as the "burning man" and photographs of his agonising death brought the horror of South Africa's xenophobic violence to the world.

In all, 62 people were killed in little more than two weeks.

Police closed the case on October 27 2010 after concluding that there were no witnesses and no suspects. A single sheet of paper summarises detective Sipho Ndybane's progress. "Suspects still unknown and no witnesses," he wrote.

Yet when the Sunday Times visited Ramaphosa three weeks ago, we tracked down an eyewitness who pointed out two of the main suspects in the crime.

The woman sees the killers at least once a week. Her recounting of details surrounding Nhamuave's death has remained consistent for nearly seven years, when she first revealed details of the murder.

At the time she was willing to speak to police. "But the police never came here. Now, I don't trust the police here," she said.

This week, we followed Sipho*, one of the men pointed out by the witness, as he sauntered about Ramaphosa, dressed in a black T-shirt, drinking casually from a water bottle. Twice he passed the spot where Nhamuave was killed, never breaking his stride.

On May 18 2008, Sipho was part of a mob intent on chasing foreigners out of the settlement. That afternoon the crowd caught two men carrying blankets and clothing with them.

"He's the one who stabbed him. He stood over him when he was down and stabbed him, like this," said the witness, motioning downward with a two-handed grip.

The mob then wrapped their victim in his own blankets and tried to set him alight. They failed.

Bheki*, another attacker, walked to the traffic circle, where a fire was burning, and returned with a flaming piece of wood, which was placed under the man.

"Then it worked. He was on fire," the witness said.

A doctor at Tambo Memorial Hospital said at the time that Nhamuave would have died as fire scorched his lungs.

'South Africans burnt him alive'

The spot where Nhamuave was killed is now a bustling taxi rank with new paving. Across the road, less than 10m away, Bheki sells knick-knacks to the locals.

"I see them almost every day and I remember what they did to that man. Nobody wants to say anything, but I can never forget," said the witness.

When Nhamuave's three children ask about their father, their mother replies: "South Africans burnt him alive."

The inquest into the Mozambican's death reveal that statements were taken from policemen who only responded months and sometimes years later. The police docket on Nhamuave consists largely of testimony by officers who first noticed a raging fire.

"While we were patrolling the Ramaphosa informal settlement we noticed a man who was burning," wrote Captain Ntombengle Kunene on March 20 2010, nearly two years after the incident.

The postmortem, done on May 27 2008 at the Medico-Legal Laboratory in Germiston, does not reveal a cause of death. Forensic anthropologist Dr Patrick Randolph-Quinney labelled it "pathetic".

"It's a very thin, cursory postmortem," he said.

The University of the Witwatersrand lecturer and researcher has more than 20 years of experience in the recovery, identification and analysis of human skeletal remains and specialises in trauma analysis.

He said the obvious things had been pointed out, such as lacerations to the head, but there had been no proper examination of the rest of the body, which may have revealed a fuller picture of the kind of trauma Nhamuave suffered.

More than 1000km away in Mozambique, Nhamuave's wife, Hortencia Masangwa (below), heard for the first time on Monday that the case had been closed.

"I am hurt because my children don't have a father and I would have liked to see someone take responsibility for orphaning my children," she said.

Her youngest, nine-year-old Viriginia, constantly asks for details about the father she never knew.

Hortencia shows her the only three pictures she has of Nhamuave.

Since her husband's death, the family have stumbled from one crisis to the next.

With her small crop she hardly manages to feed the children.

Late last year, looting rebels complicated matters, forcing the family from their home in the central part of the country. Crops withered and the family went hungry, trying to eke out a living by selling firewood by the side of the road.

"Sometimes I go two weeks without selling the wood and I have no money for something as basic as sugar to make tea. Then I have to tell my children: 'Mama doesn't have money for food.'"

Her children walk 10km to school barefoot and have been given until April to buy exercise books or stay at home.

Hortencia is especially proud of her eldest, Alfabeto, who is now in Grade 12.

"He looks a lot like his father. When I look at him I think of his father, Ernesto. The only memory I have of him are my children."

Henk Strydom, senior prosecutor at Boksburg Magistrate's Court, confirmed that the investigation was closed. Police spokesman Solomon Makgale said the docket was still open.

'Burning man' timeline:

May 18 2008: Ernesto Nhamuave (above) is burnt alive by a mob in Ramaphosa, east of Johannesburg.

May 27 2008: Nhamuave's cousin tracks down his body to the Germiston mortuary. He is identified by a defect on his toe.

May 27 2008: Autopsy performed at Germiston Medico-Legal Laboratory cannot determine cause of death.

June 3 2008: Nhamuave's body arrives home in Mozambique. He is buried the same day.

September 17 2008: Investigating officer Sipho Ndybane files his first and only report on the murder. He writes there are no suspects and no witnesses.

March 20 2010: Final statement is gathered from a police captain who helped to extinguish the fire engulfing Nhamuave.

October 27 2010: The investigation into the murder is officially closed.

*Not their real names

- TimesLive

Charity gives hope in face of xenophobic despair

These are people with lives but they have been put on hold. And, although things are said to have calmed down considerably since xenophobic violence erupted in KwaZulu-Natal three weeks ago, these thousands of foreigners face an uncertain fate. With seven people killed at the height of the violence, they still fear for their lives.

They are housed in four camps in the province – in Chatsworth, Phoenix, Isipingo Beach and Pietermaritzburg – which together accommodate about 5 000 people. The camps are situated on grounds that were not intended for habitation and, as a result, sanitation is a problem.

But, amid the overcrowding, litter and puddles, the spirit of hope remains alive. It is there in the actions of hundreds of volunteers who have made these camps their second home. It is in the eyes of foreigners, who sit patiently at makeshift home affairs desks, repatriation papers in hand, waiting to go home. You find it in the generosity of South Africans from various communities who come by with items or time to donate.

And, not least, it is in the dreams of dozens of inhabitants – legal or illegal in the eyes of the law – who are waiting for news of a lasting peace that will enable them to live a normal life in South Africa.

In this and the next two pages, we look at how the refugee camps have brought out the best in some South Africans and hear from the people on the receiving end about the worst in others.

Two weeks ago, Nicole Palany (22) and her sister arrived at the sports ground in Chatsworth’s Unit 3B, where hundreds of victims and escapees of xenophobic violence are temporarily living, to make a donation.

“We just stuck around a bit to see what was going on and helped serve lunch. After that, we have come day in and day out.”

The camp co-ordinator handed Palany a notebook and asked her to record the donated items streaming into the ground, where the 1 500 to 2 200 displaced foreigners share a few giant white marquees. The numbers fluctuate, with many people going home and others coming in.

A bespectacled Palany duly sits at a table at the entrance, under a banner marked “donations”, enthusiastically chatting to donors about a wide range of topics – from what’s needed to the problems faced by the occupants of the camp.

Nicole Palany is a volunteer at the Chatsworth camp.

Attached to the front of the table are handwritten posters that inform the public about what’s required. Items listed include concentrated juice, soap, baby food, sanitary pads, plastic basins and dishcloths. 

“When we came, things were very disorganised; not everything was documented. But we became more organised as the days went by. Gosh, we have a table – we didn’t even have a table when we started.”

Palany, who is studying for an honours degree in marketing, is from nearby Queensborough. She arrives at the campsite at 8am and leaves “when she has to”, sometimes as late as 11pm.

Her table is inundated, she says, particularly at the weekends and between 4pm and 7pm on weekdays, when more people are free to come and donate. 

“Our community has been absolutely amazing. If you look at the storage tent, you can see that we have everything we need to give them, everything they need. We are short of nothing.”

Still, feeding 1 500 people three meals a day is no joke and several organisations chip in to make this possible. Palany records their details in a meal schedule, in a separate black book.

“We have a great number of people phoning us on a constant basis, saying they need to cook. Sometimes people even rock up here with cooked food, which we then have to send … to where it’s needed.”

It is the plight of the children that has touched Palany the most.

“The kids … man, it really breaks your heart. Lots of babies are getting lost. A kid was lost for four hours and, when we finally located her mum, she was waiting to go on a bus back to Malawi. She didn’t seem to notice that her child was missing. And the baby wasn’t even agitated; she was very relaxed.

“People have worked so hard. They have made a living and homes for themselves, and you get other people destroying that. The kids don’t deserve that. They [now] have to depend on other people for food and toiletries.” 

Lumbi Maruma

Hairdresser from Zimbabwe

It’s obvious that xenophobia refugee Lumbi Maruma’s two children (aged one and nine) are her priority. She doesn’t want to return to Zimbabwe because she feels she can give them a better life in South Africa. 

At the same time, she feels terrible about the problems that living in a refugee camp pose for them.

“I’m not feeling okay. Because of the problems, the big one can’t go to school. It’s not nice here, especially for my smaller child. There are other children here and many of them are sick.”

Her main needs are linked to her children: extra clothing for them, cereal and powdered milk. In fact, every few days Maruma leaves the camp and hurries to the informal settlement that she once called home, gives her toddler a bath under running water in her room, and rushes back to the camp.    

For the moment refugees are safe at the Chatsworth camp but, like Lumbi Maruma from Zimbabwe, they want things to return to normal so they can get on with their lives. (Rajesh Jantilal)

Maruma (29) is a hairdresser and ran a busy hair salon in the informal settlement. She heard rumours that somebody was going to burn down her room because she was staying there, so she fled to the refugee camp and has been living there for the past two weeks.

“People were killing people and I was afraid, so I came here.”

She came to South Africa in 2009 and has no intention of returning to Zimbabwe.

“My sister in Zimbabwe taught me hairdressing, and I came here looking for work. I then started my own salon and it was doing really well … I don’t want to go back.

“Here I can manage to support my children … I just want peace.”

Nur ‘Nic’ Holmes

Medical services overseer, Chatsworth refugee camp

Clad in blue jeans, black boots, a checked shirt and a tricoloured reflector vest, Nur “Nic” Holmes looks the part of an emergency health worker. But he still cuts a conspicuous figure – he is one of a few white volunteers at Chatsworth’s refugee camp. 

“I’m a ‘wit charou’ – what the hell!” he guffaws, when asked why he lives in Chatsworth. “Everyone knows me as the wit charou from Chatsworth.”

A computer technician by profession, Holmes is a qualified critical care assistant who, assisted by his wife Faeeza, runs Voluntary Medical Response Services, a community-based organisation that stabilises injured people at the scene of an incident. Faeeza is a basic life-support paramedic.

Fifteen years ago, when a stampede occurred at the Throb nightclub in Chatsworth, claiming the lives of 13 children, the couple were among first on the scene, providing medical emergency services to the injured. Since then, the police’s “Chatsworth cluster” regularly summons their help in emergencies.

“On Easter Sunday, the police told us to go to Lusaka [an informal settlement in the area]. On arriving there, we found two foreigners lying on the floor, severely beaten up … They had stab wounds on their heads,” Faeeza says. “There were a group of South Africans surrounding them, saying that we should leave them to die and not touch them.

“But we did whatever we could. We waited for an ambulance to take them to the hospital but they both passed away after a few days.”

A couple of days later, when the camp was set up, the Holmeses and their two trainees began to provide medical treatment to arrivals at the camp from their vehicle.

“The next thing we knew they called us in and told us we were running the medical services here,” says Holmes.

A doctor from Chatsworth sponsored a tent and a stock of medical supplies. Holmes and his team have recently been joined by a team from the Islamic Medical Association, also a nongovernmental organisation.

“You have got a crowd here and wherever there’s a crowd, there are problems,” he says. “There are a lot of babies with nappy rash, which has gone out of control. We’re dealing with circumcisions gone septic, diarrhoea, malnutrition, dehydration …”

On average, 300 patients a day are treated at the tent.

“We cope. The community has been incredible. There is help coming in from places like Glenwood, Amanzimtoti and Hillcrest, from Christian and Islamic organisations, from everybody.”

During the interview, a foreigner who’s smiling from ear to ear comes to greet Holmes and his team. “I’m going home. Bye, bye,” he says, cheerfully waving his hands.

“The ones we treated, they must come and say they are leaving. It’s so sweet,” Faeeza says. “We are very sad to see them going.”

Holmes adds: “What has happened is disgusting and disgraceful. You can’t even print how I feel about it.”

Zubair Ryegure

Refugee

I was walking through one of Durban’s refugee camps when Zubair Ryegure, a 30-year-old from Burundi, excitedly approached me, wanting to shake my hand and exchange the Islamic greeting (the salaam) with me.

When I asked him what his primary needs were, he mentioned three: a shelter in which to pray, a bucket which he could use to perform the wudhu (ablution) before prayer and a candle.

“The first thing we must do is ask God to help us because things are very bad. If we are Muslims, then we can’t leave praying for one or two days.” 

Ryegure is from Muyinga province in Burundi, where he was the president of the youth wing of the Front for Democracy in Burundi, which is the main opposition in the East African country.

“The ruling party, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD/FDD), wanted me to enter their party. I refused, so they put me in prison for three months without a trial.” 

Chatsworth camp resident Zubair Ryegure can’t go home, but his future in South Africa is uncertain. (Fayyaaz Akoob)

When a judge released him, Ryegure was approached by young members of the CNDD/FDD, who told him his life would be at risk if he didn’t leave.

“They said they had a mission to kill me.” 

Ryegure went into hiding for two months, before fleeing to Tanzania in January this year. From there, he went to Mozambique.

“The police in Mozambique took my phone and my clothes and they told me to go.

“I went to a mosque in Maputo and a Muslim man there gave me a ticket to come to South Africa and, when I came here, home affairs gave me a permit first for a month then for six months.”

Ryegure is a qualified topographer.

“I found out that if I’m not a national I can’t work in this field, so I was living with my friend, waiting to see if I could find a job doing motorbike deliveries.”

One night, a few weeks ago, a group of locals entered his friend’s room and cleared it of its contents, including a fridge and a bed.

“They were saying something in isiZulu but I didn’t understand it. I called my friend and he came to fetch me and we came here.”

Returning to Burundi is not an option for him.

“I can’t go back because of the situation there.”

For now, his home is a tent made of thin black fabric that he and some friends have tied to a fence.

“There are a lot of people in the big tents. My Islam doesn’t allow men and women to stay in one place.”

Ryegure has a wife and two children back home. When he speaks about them, he starts to cry. “I ask to be protected only. And for someone to give me a job and a nice place to be safe. Now, I’m not safe.”

Abed Karrim

Humanitarian aid worker, Phoenix and Isipingo Beach camps   

It’s 8am on a Wednesday morning and the atmosphere in Phoenix’s refugee camp is relaxed. Groups of people sit on the ground, chatting. Some are playing soccer with a ball made from clear plastic bags held in shape with some tape.

At the far end of the field, Abed Karrim sits outside an Al-Imdaad Foundation (AIF) tent, chatting to his team. 

Daily, the humanitarian aid relief organisation provides breakfast – 3 000 peanut butter and jam sandwiches – at the camp. After that, the Red Cross serves tea.

The AIF, in partnership with the Verulam Muslim community, provides supper at the Phoenix camp, and lunch to another camp in Isipingo. The organisation also assists with the provision of mattresses and blankets. All this is overseen by Karrim.

Abed Karrim of the Al-Imdaad Foundation assists at the Phoenix and Isipingo camps. (Rajesh Jantilal)

Breakfast at Phoenix is usually served at 8am sharp, but the night before some guards apparently broke into the camp’s provisions tent and stole the tea, sugar and milk. As a result, things are not running according to schedule.

But Karrim is unperturbed. When a Red Cross volunteer pops in to apologise, he simply smiles and responds: “In disaster, everything happens.”

He should know. His role as an AIF disaster response and poverty eradication practitioner has taken him as far afield as Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

When he was a teenager, he and his family were frequently rescued by army boats from 2m-deep floodwater.

“The Klip River flows behind our house in Ladysmith. My family and I were victims of eight to 10 floods in Ladysmith. I stood in lines waiting for help – like blankets and mattresses – from individuals, organisations and government.

“As a victim feeling helpless, it used to give me hope to see how everyone put their hands together to assist fellow human beings.” 

It made sense then that Karrim worked actively in alleviating poverty among the disadvantaged in Ladysmith before joining the AIF seven years ago. 

Still a resident of Ladysmith, he has spent the past three weeks living out of a bag at a B&B in Durban, moving between Phoenix and Isipingo Beach.

“From my experience, this disaster has been huge. It has been 22 days and people are still in the camps.

“Immigration, home affairs and the different embassies need to facilitate faster movement of the people, either back home, because many want to go home, or through reintegrating them here.

“You get this feeling that you need to thank God that you are not in this predicament.

“This morning I saw a father playing with his baby and I asked him if he was hungry. He said, ‘Not me, my baby’.

“We should try as fellow human beings to speedily be of service to victims of the camps.

“Everyone has a lifestyle – we eat at a certain time, do our daily chores at certain times. We need to try to bring that life back to them in a meaningful way so it becomes easier for them.”

Blankets help ease the pain

People from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi all gather on a piece of land the size of a football field, just 20 minutes’ drive east from the centre of Johannesburg. 

Within three days, the empty field in Primrose, Germiston, has turned into a safe haven for foreigners. They are surrounded by barbed wire that also serves as a washing line. 

A few provisional, shaky metal toilets have been put up on the refugee camp’s perimeter.

To walk in here is a mission. The green tents that are temporarily going to be their homes are squeezed tightly together. 

Two human snakes made up of more than 600 people slowly curl towards their goal. The lines are divided: men in one and women and children in the other.

The queues are hardly moving. People have been waiting for hours — their legs tell them to sit down, but they need to stay in line.

Finally, after hours in the blazing sun, Melody Chipisa, a woman from Mozambique carrying her baby on her back, makes it to the front of the queue. She is now close to her goal.

“Where is your tag; how many people are in your family?” she is asked. She makes her way towards the minivan. It is packed with blankets from the floor to the roof. One blanket per person in a family. 

“We handed out about 450 blankets today, but it’s not finished and it’s not enough for everybody, unfortunately,” says the Red Cross’s Simon Ngwenya.

The blankets are the only protection the refugees will have against the coming winter. 

They don’t know how many days, weeks or months the Primrose field is going to be their home.

Even though many of the displaced people have not been directly targeted by the xenophobic violence, they would rather live in the refugee camp than spend any more sleepless nights fearing the mob of raging people who hate them.

A gospel song, drums and maracas are heard around the camp. The refugees are treated to a pop-up church. Reverend Mosa Sono gets them to gather around him. Slowly he starts to preach; the Bible in his hand is thick and slightly worn out. 

“In the eyes of God we are all the same. We are all equal; we all have the same rights,” he roars. The crowd simultaneously responds “Yes!” over and over again.

The children in the crowd stay close to their parents, the smallest ones carried on their mothers’ backs and the bigger ones sitting on the ground with their arms wrapped around their legs. 

Some of the children have toys. A young boy is carrying a small blue car, a shining Mini Cooper. It looks brand new, as if it has never touched the dirty ground.

Another child, a girl, is hugging a big, fluffy, threadbare soft-toy tiger. It has clearly been loved and hugged tightly in the past. 

Her name is Tina and she is three years old. Today she is matching her tiger with a striped shirt. It is a new garment she has just received from the church.

The camp is crowded with children, but you don’t see too many playing. Most sit quietly with their parents, just listening to their conversations. 

— Fredrik Lerneryd & Gustav Butlex - M&G

Foreigners employ safety measures

Cape Town - “One: Do not answer your phone while using public transport as they might pick up from your accent that you are not from South Africa. If that happens, they might harm you.

“Two: Do not wear your traditional garments. Wear what the local South African black man and woman is wearing because if they see your dress, they might harm you.

“Three: Pack up all your stock and keep it somewhere safe until things calm down. If they see your shop in operation, they might harm you.”

Those are some of the instructions Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers living in Cape Town are obeying amid fears that xenophobic attacks, which were triggered in other provinces, might spread to the Western Cape.

Callixte Kavuro, chairman of the Rwandan platform for Dialogue, Truth and Justice (RDTJ), on Monday said about 1 500 refugees and asylum seekers would “lay low” for the next few weeks out of fear for their lives.

“We are taking our own preventative measures - the law cannot protect us. We have adopted those rules to keep us safe,” Kavuro said.

Congolese Community of the Western Cape spokesman Leonard Mulunda lamented that the memory of the 2008 attacks, when about 60 foreign nationals were killed across the country, still haunted many of them.

“From my experience living in South Africa, people tend to blame foreigners for problems of housing, unemployment and of poverty,” Mulunda said.

While Somali Association provincial spokesman Mohamed Osman said there were no fears of xenophobic attacks in the province, its members were always vigilant to avoid potential conflict.

Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said the department would refrain from speculation as to why the brutal attacks on foreigners in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have not occurred in the province.

Carolin Gomulia, communication co-ordinator at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), echoed Plato’s stance and added that a xenophobic outbreak could spark in the province at any moment.

A debate at the IJR’s Cape Town office on Tuesday would interrogate interventions needed to address xenophobia. The panel would include community leaders, government and civil organisations.

- Cape Times

Kill thy neighbour: Alex attack brings home SA's shame

The brutality of South Africans turning on their neighbours was brought home yesterday morning as people stood by while a Mozambican man was stalked, stabbed and killed as he lay in township filth, pleading for his life.

His attackers had followed him down a street, keeping their prey at arm's length, waiting for an opening to land the fatal blow.

They circled him as, on his knees amid rubbish, he pleaded for mercy.

In those moments, Emmanuel Sithole was no longer a man, a neighbour, a human being. The intensity on his attackers' faces showed that he had become a thing to kill - each thrust aimed with ferocity.

Around the macabre scene - where children had played and adults had strolled moments before - some now held their hands to their mouths in horror. Others stood seemingly detached, as if watching a movie.

The attack on Sithole lasted about two minutes.

Alexandra township, next door to Sandton, had just emerged from a night of violent unrest, as had townships around South Africa.

In Soweto on Friday night, metro police rescued two South Africans apprehended by locals as they tried to break into a Pakistani-owned shop. They had already been doused with petrol when they were rescued.

In Arkwright Avenue, Alexandra, Sithole had no saviours. Instead, it took his attackers less than an hour - from the time of his attack to his death - to rob a Mozambican family of a brother, a son, a breadwinner.

Shortly before 8am yesterday morning, Sithole was walking along Second Avenue in Alexandra when he was attacked by one man, then another and then a third, armed with a wrench and knives. Other men, one armed with a spade and another reaching into his pocket, hesitated on the periphery, seemingly ready to join the ambush.

A man in a black leather jacket urged the attackers to stop.

Sithole held up his hands, pleading, trying to fend off the blows, but the monkey wrench struck, dropping him to the ground.

Then came the okapi knife, striking home and opening his chest.

He walked until he could go no further, sitting defeated in a gutter on Arkwright Avenue. One of the knives had pierced his heart. The Sunday Times rushed him to Edenvale Hospital, where he died.

READ MORE: The brutal death of Emmanuel Sithole

Sithole's death brings to seven the number of those who have died since the xenophobic violence broke out on March 30 in Isipingo, south of Durban.

President Jacob Zuma, who had been due to leave yesterday on a week-long state visit to Indonesia, cancelled his trip after criticism of it erupted on social media. The Presidency said Zuma had cancelled the trip to "attend to matters at home relating to the attacks on foreign nationals".

He visited a transit camp for displaced foreign nationals in Chatsworth, Durban, and announced plans for him and his cabinet to hold "stakeholder outreach programmes" this week.

Zuma said his government was ready to deploy the army if the situation so demanded.

"We will fix the situation ... it won't take long. We are saying we want to protect lives and end the violence because we are against it. We are doing all that we can to protect lives. That's why we have the police all over the place, if needs we will bring out the army," said Zuma, drawing boos from the crowd.

Condemnation

The Malawian and Mozambican governments have ferried busloads of their citizens away from Durban.

This week fellow African countries strongly condemned the attacks and demanded firm action from the South African government.

Sithole's killing yesterday came a day after international relations minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, during a meeting with African ambassadors, assured them that all necessary measures had been put in place to avoid further loss of life.

The other six killings took place around Durban and claimed the lives of three South Africans and three foreigners.

Police have made arrests in only the South African killings; no arrest has been made in connection with the deaths of the foreigners.

South Africa's image has taken a hit, with other African countries either calling for a boycott of South African companies on the continent or the expulsion of South Africans working in those countries.

Speaking at Zimbabwe's 35th independence celebration event in Harare yesterday, President Robert Mugabe described the xenophobic attacks as "horrible". Mugabe is also the chairman of SADC and the African Union.

"We say, on behalf of SADC and indeed on behalf of the AU that [this] must never happen again. Never happen again in South Africa or any other country," said Mugabe.

It has also been reported that terrorist group Boko Haram has issued a warning against South Africa, but the veracity of the report could not be verified.

Sasol has withdrawn South African employees from its Mozambican plant after receiving threats.

The Lebombo border post between South Africa and Mozambique was reopened on Friday afternoon after it was closed for a short while after trucks with South African registration numbers were stoned.

Yesterday, a group of displaced foreigners boarded buses in Durban to return to their home countries. Two buses bound for Malawi left Isipingo yesterday.

Henry Mwambimba, 29, from Lilongwe, Malawi, vowed never to return to South Africa.

"After six years in South Africa I had hoped to return home a better man. But this is the only thing I have," Mwambimba said, pointing to a bag with clothes.

"I was never beaten up but I witnessed the violence. It destroyed my chicken tikka business."

Officials from the Department of Home Affairs had their hands full as the two buses organised could not accommodate all of the Malawians who wished to return home. A group of Mozambican citizens left on Friday.

This week, the violence against foreign nationals began an insidious spread across South Africa.

Eastern Cape police thwarted an arson attack in Cala, where a Zimbabwean came under attack after he allegedly killed his South African girlfriend.

Violence also broke out in Jeppe, Johannesburg.

Inciting Violence

Amid it all, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini - who is accused of inciting the xenophobic violence - finally buckled under pressure to break his silence since his utterances two weeks ago to the effect that foreign nationals should be expelled from South Africa.

But when he addresses his imbizo today, the Zulu monarch will not be apologising. Instead, the king is expected to condemn the violence and call for calm.

But King Goodwill, who has spurned the South African Human Rights Commission, has been feeling the pressure. On Wednesday morning, he checked in to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital for an unscheduled appointment, complaining of chest pains. He left a few hours later.

On Monday, he met government ministers Malusi Gigaba of home affairs, David Mahlobo of state security and Nathi Nhleko of police. The three ministers conveyed a message from the ANC and Zuma, asking him to either apologise or publicly denounce the violence.

At the meeting, Gigaba apologised to the king and "clarified" his earlier comments condemning irresponsible leaders for inciting violence, saying they were not directed at him.

But the king turned down the suggestion to lead an anti-xenophobia march in the Durban city centre on Thursday. Apparently he told the ministers of his plan to call an imbizo, which was eventually announced by KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu on Friday.

On the same day that the king met with the ministers, he gave an audience to Phumlani Mfeka, leader of the divisive and abusive anti-Indian grouping Mazibuye Africa Forum.

The meeting, which Mfeka and his colleagues bragged about on social networks, was to convince the king to call the imbizo.

The Human Rights Commission has been trying, without success, to set up a meeting with the king.

An insider said commission chairman Lawrence Mushwana had contacted the Royal Household Trust, which handles the king's affairs - but no response was forthcoming.

"We didn't win [with setting up a meeting]. We made a number of phone calls. They stood us up," said the insider.

The ANC and its government has come in for much criticism for the manner in which the falling out with the king has been handled. Instead of condemning him, the party has chosen to defend him.

Nhleko, his most vocal defender, insisted that the king's comments were misrepresented by the media.

But while there is unhappiness within the ANC, no leader including Zuma has been bold enough to speak out against King Goodwill.

"Surely if the [ANC] leadership was not too preoccupied with the need not to offend the king, they would have told him in no uncertain terms that he is wrong. They would send a person much more senior than Malusi to deliver the message," said an ANC insider.

But the days of the king making reckless public statements could soon be over as the provincial government plans to exercise tight control over his written and spoken speeches.

Thulasizwe Buthelezi, the newly appointed chairman of the Royal Household Trust, said it was looking for a new speechwriter for the king and would ensure that "all communication, written and spoken, will be aligned such that it enhances the king's image".

"We are mindful that the new board comes at a time when the king's image has taken a huge blow due to the wave of xenophobic violence.

"We are starting on the back foot because we need to ensure that the king is a unifying figure. We need to rebuild his image," he said.

"The Zulu monarch cannot be about the buying of Mercedes-Benzes, weddings and a tax gobbler. He should be a centre of the pride and heritage of the Zulu Kingdom, that's what we intend dealing with," he said.

What they said...

March 21: King Goodwill Zwelithini in Pongola: "As I speak, you find [foreigners] unpleasant goods hanging all over our shops, they soil our streets. We cannot even recognise which shop is which ... there are foreigners everywhere.

"We ask foreign nationals to pack their belongings and go back to their countries."

April 10: Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said: "South Africa is not against Africans.

"I'm appealing to all leaders to stop making statements that instigate or condone attacks against foreign nationals. "All our leaders in the country have a responsibility to use words to build and not destroy."

April 10: Police Minister Nathi Nhleko defended the king, saying he was misquoted. He said: "His context was [that] our borders were porous, people were walking in and out without any documentation. If we continue to allow that situation, we'll end up not being able to trace them and that contributes to the escalation of crime."

April 11: King Goodwill said: "I ask political leaders that we should respect each other. Democracy should not make them feel like demigods. Although everyone has a right to comment about [kingship], I will not allow myself to be insulted by people who think because of five years which was given to them at the mercy of voters, they are now demigods who should be praised.

"I wish that politicians who comment on what I said in Pongola should do so with knowledge. They should ask Police Minister Nhleko about what I had said, as I was there on his invitation. A person should not comment just because he is standing in front of microphones and cameras."

- TimesLive