Foreigners attacked in Isipingo

Durban - Congolese living and running businesses in Isipingo came under siege on Monday when locals attacked them in their shops and trashed the house they had run to for refuge.

The locals allegedly told the foreigners that King Goodwill Zwelithini had given them an ultimatum that “by April 1” they should have gone back to their home countries.

However, the Royal Household Trust’s chairman, Judge Jerome Ngwenya, denied that the actions of the locals were triggered by the king’s utterances, adding that the violence was started by foreigners fighting among themselves in Umlazi earlier.

Ngwenya said according to his knowledge, the violence started at a shopping complex in Umlazi where a foreigner shot dead another foreigner.

He said the trust maintained that the king did not say foreigners must be deported.

“He did not use the word ‘foreigners’. He did not say the foreigners must leave. He said izigilamkhuba (thugs) who illegally enter the country and continue with their criminal activities must go back to their countries.

“The king is not talking to foreigners who are legally here and are working … and who do not break the law.”

Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said that no case had been opened. “We urged the victims to come forward,” he said.

He could not link the Umlazi incident and the Isipingo one.

Congolese Raphaely Fikiri, 30, said the violence started between 10am and 11am when a crowd of people looted shops, chasing people away, and told them that foreigners must go.

Fikiri said when they ran to the house which they rented, police arrived but were too few to manage the hostile crowd.

“They came in one small car and they left. The looters then got a chance to enter the house. They damaged four cars, they threw stones,” he said.

Some helped themselves to car stereos and bags with personal belongings. A number of people suffered minor injuries to the head and body after being hit by stones.

The Congolese attacked at the house were at the Isipingo police station for their safety and could not go back to the house on Monday night.

Fikiri said their relationship with the locals had been peaceful since he had got there in 2006.

“People just took a chance because they heard the king saying all foreigners must move,” he said.

“I forgive the king because he does not know what he has said. We know that his wife is also a foreigner. She also can go back.”

Fikiri, who has been in the country legally for 10 years, said they were defenceless. He said most of them had hair salons and one of them was a car mechanic. Some of the four cars on the property had been brought in by owners for fixing.

Daniel Dunia, 33, said he was in his shop when he heard the locals singing in the streets: “Foreigners must go; the king said they must go, ‘makwerekwere awahambe’”.

Dunia said police who returned to the scene advised them to close down.

A vendor who saw the crowd said he heard them saying: “The foreigners must have gone back home by April 1.”

Human Rights Commission spokesman Isaac Mangena said they condemned the attack and called on communities to understand the rights of foreigners.

“They do have a right to stay in the country, to find employment and to start businesses. Law enforcement agencies must ensure that they arrest perpetrators and protect the foreigners,” said Mangena.

Community Safety MEC Willies Mchunu said the attack was “pure criminality that should be treated as such”. He said attacks on foreigners were undermining peaceful efforts to resolve such violence.

Independent violence monitor Mary de Haas said the locals were using “what the king had said as an excuse, but that is their responsibility … It gives them an excuse to do it and it is criminal mob behaviour.”

De Haas was also astonished that no arrests had been made, and at reports that police who first arrived at the scene went back to the station and returned later on.

During a moral regeneration event in Pongola two weeks ago, the king called for the government to send foreigners back home because they were changing the nature of South African society with their “amanikiniki” (shabby goods) and enjoying wealth that should have been for local people.

The HRC is investigating the king’s speech.

- The Mercury

Down With Xenophobia! Say Khayelitsha Organisations

To commemorate Human Rights Day and raise awareness about xenophobia, around 80 South Africans and Somalis marched in Khayelitsha Site C at an event organised by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC).

The participants marched down streets, singing and shouting slogans, "Phantsi nge xenophobia! Pantsi! (down with xenophobia)."

SJC activist Malwande Msongelwa, who has been working in the community since 2009, said the organisation was established in 2008 in response to the xenophobic attacks. The SJC is continuing with its mandate by engaging the police every time there is a xenophobic attack, giving protection to the targeted foreigners, and organising awareness programmes.

"The aim is to stop xenophobic attacks and give awareness to the community, discouraging what happened in Johannesburg and at Marikana in Philippi to happen here."

She said they plan to implement similar activities in other communities, but there was a pressing need to start in Site C since the area has a high crime rate.

A pamphlet with police contact numbers on it was distributed to educate the community to coexist with foreigners, stop looting and vandalising their shops, and to encourage members of the community to phone the police if they came across a foreigner being attacked.

Msongelwa said, "According to South African constitution, foreigners have a right to stay in this country freely. South African citizens should not abuse their rights or discriminate [against] them. Since the inception of this programme, I am receiving positive feedback from the community. The community want foreigners to stay and manage their businesses because they are friendly, they treat customers with respect and sell affordable items. Elderly people are ashamed of their children who get involved in vandalising and looting foreigners' shops."

She said that in response to the recommendations made by the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into policing, the SJC together with other bodies have established eight community forums. From these forums, police take up complaints and suggestions based on research conducted by the civil society organisations and on community needs. Civil organisations are helping to build trust between the community and the police.

On 14 March, a forum in Nkanini was attended by the City of Cape Town, the South African National Civic Organization (Sanco), Community Police Forum, Ndifuna Ukwazi, SAPS, area committees and the Department of Community Safety.

One participant, a 54-year-old woman, said, "I am a mother, I also bore children; I know the pain of bearing a child. I condemn these xenophobic attacks. Somalis are also human beings. They ran from war and are making an honest living for themselves."

A 25-year-old Somali said he is happy with the initiative. He believes the kind of support they are getting from South Africans will help curb such crimes in Site C. Addressing other Somalis in their language, he said, "These South Africans who marched with us today are here to support us. We should not be involved in crime; let's live in harmony. If you have a problem with a South African citizen, do not take the law into your hands, engage community leaders. If it's a customer, tell him or her to go and buy at another shop to avoid the spread of the attacks that spread to Philippi."

- allAfrica

King’s anti-foreigner speech causes alarm

Durban - Comments by the Zulu king that foreigners should go back to their home countries because they are changing the nature of South African society with their amanikiniki or goods and enjoying wealth that should have been for local people have horrified foreigners who have been dealing with a spate of xenophobic attacks around the country.

King Goodwill Zwelithini made the comments in a “moral regeneration” event in Pongola at the weekend.

The speech was reported in The Mercury’s sister newspaper Isolezwe and on radio station Igagasi FM.

Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) chairman Ismail Ahmed said the statements could spark violence that would cause irreparable damage to the relationship between South Africans and the rest of Africa.

Shako Kuminga, who represents the Congolese in Durban, said the king’s statement came while Congolese nationals were mourning deaths caused by a series of xenophobic attacks.

His countryman Noel Beya Dinshistia, a bouncer at a local nightclub, was doused in a flammable substance before being set alight while on duty two weeks ago.

He said the attackers were South Africans. Police spokesman Thulani Zwane confirmed the incident, but said no one had been arrested.

“Every week a Congolese is attacked in this city. On Friday a Congolese was attacked while returning from work.

“He was attacked because he worked as security guard.

“My wife (Tina Mwange) was stabbed in the Point area yesterday.”

He said a Congolese woman known to the family was kidnapped in 2010 from Che Guevara (Moore) Road in Glenwood and taken to Umlazi where she was raped.

“What the king is saying is not helping the situation,” Kuminga said.

Ahmed said Somalis in South Africa also paid allegiance to the king.

“He is also our king and he should be protecting us.”

In his speech King Zwelithini said when South Africans were in exile they did not settle in other countries and start trading.

“Instead, when you were in their countries you helped them to get their freedom. I know that other countries were liberated because of liberation armies from South Africa,” he was quoted saying.

“(But now) when you walk in the street you cannot recognise a shop that you used to know because it has been taken over by foreigners, who then mess it up by hanging amanikiniki,” he said.

 

The king said foreigners were doing as they pleased because locals were not behaving properly and not respecting their hard-won freedom.

He said foreigners had realised that South Africans were stupid, which was why they were taking over the wealth.

“My ancestor King Cetshwayo fought for this country, which in 1994 was liberated.

“It cannot be that in 2015 the liberation is being damaged by (local) people who are not obeying the law, are thieves, child rapists and too lazy to plough the fields.”

Political leaders were too afraid to tell South Africans the truth about their bad behaviour because they were scared of losing votes, he said.

Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and Community and Liaison MEC Willies Mchunu were present during the speech and the king apologised for raising his concerns.

“I have to talk about this because I am the king; I don’t have to wait for five years (for votes). As the king of the Zulu nation and among those who liberated this country, the time has come for me to say I’m fed up to be led by people (political leaders) who cannot express themselves.”

The

king’s spokesman, Thulani Zulu, said he could not comment as he was not present when the speech was delivered and he did not know who wrote it.

-The Mercury