WORLD> Africa
|
WORLD> Africa
|
|
Mbeki calls in troops as S.Africa mob deaths double
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-22 15:57
The foreigners, most of whom have fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, have been blamed for sky-high rates of crime in South Africa as well as depriving locals of jobs. The unofficial unemployment rate in South Africa is believed to be about 40 percent. More than 3,000 Mozambicans have fled anti-immigrant violence in South Africa and returned home, Mozambican state media reported Wednesday. Human Rights Commission chairman Jodi Kollapen told AFP that the authorities would face a difficult task re-integrating immigrants who had been driven from their homes. "There is no way you can re-integrate people into communities if the community remains hostile to them, and those who were evicted continue to feel insecure and intimidated about going back. "They (locals) will have achieved the objective of driving foreigners out of the country." Police said Wednesday they had arrested four community leaders in Germiston on charges of incitement. "The Germiston police have made a breakthrough in the xenophobic attacks that have plagued their area since Saturday by arresting four community leaders at Dukathole informal settlement this afternoon," said a police spokesman. Meanwhile, the damage to the country's reputation from the violence -- reminiscent of that seen in townships during the whites-only apartheid era -- took its toll on currency markets, with the rand dropping against the dollar and the euro. Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters that the problems in South Africa were all the more surprising given the country's struggle with apartheid. "South Africa was the last African country to gain its independence. Along its bumpy road to independence, South Africans were scattered all over the continent, including Kenya. "We gave them tremendous and admirable hospitality (...) The last country anybody would imagine would engage in xenophobia is South Africa." |
