Opportunists are fuelling the attacks on foreign nationals
A call has been made for South Africans to step in to help foreign nationals who are helpless at the hands of their attackers.
THE largest shack dweller’s organisation in South Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo, has condemned the recent spate of violent attacks on foreign nationals. In a statement the organisation said: “These are dangerous times. Everyone in the city is scared. The sun is about to go down and we fear that there will be a lot more killing and looting tonight. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
Their statement comes after the Durban city centre erupted yesterday when some South Africans began attacking foreign nationals.
Today, the looting of foreign owned shops spread to Verulam.
Thousands of foreign nationals live in various informal settlements around the city. What’s more, said the leaders of the shack dwellers, the brutal attacks are being fueled by ‘opportunists’, who they say are are ‘emerging everywhere to use this violence to build their own power and to loot’.
They said they are appealing to all South Africans, even those that are silent, to help end the war on fellow Africans. “We are appealing to the church leaders, progressive forces and to the radical students to join us in this struggle. We are doing what we can. We are holding meetings and undertaking small acts of solidarity, like arranging for South Africans to fetch the children of migrants from their schools and take them to safe places. But it is very difficult to advance a politic of peace in the middle of this kind of violence, coming from both the state and other forces.”
Click on these links to read more about the xenophobic violence in Durban:
https://www.citizen.co.za/north-glen-news/59693/xenophobic-attacks-flare-up-in-avoca/
