Johannesburg - A year on from a two-week orgy of xenophobic
violence in South Africa that killed 62 people and left thousands
homeless, foreigners are still at risk of attack because the root
causes have not been addressed, experts said Monday.
One year ago on May 11, 2008, residents of Alexandra township
north of Johannesburg turned on foreigners in their midst, accusing
them of taking jobs and houses and of being involved in crime.
In the two weeks that followed, the violence jumped to other towns
and cities nationwide, including Cape Town, but most of the deaths
took place in Johannesburg.
Many of the victims were killed in gruesome fashion, beaten or
burned to death by rampaging mobs. In some instances, the attackers
took over the homes and belongings of their victims, most of whom
came from neighbouring African countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique
and Malawi.
'Foreigners in South Africa face continued threats of xenophobic
violence,' the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa,
a network of civil society groups working with refugees, said in a
statement Monday.
'Little has been done by authorities to address the root causes of
the violence,' the consortium found, noting that vigilantism was
still common, often under the guise of 'fighting crime.'
The group cited an attack by a mob in January on a high-rise
apartment in Durban housing foreigners as evidence that xenophobia
was still prevalent.
In their bid to escape the mob two men jumped to their deaths and
a third sustained serious injuries. They were from Zimbabwe, Tanzania
and Mozambique.
The consortium blamed a lack of conflict resolution mechanisms for
failing to defuse tensions in poor communities and called on newly-
elected President Jacob Zuma to prioritize the issue.
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