A wave of Xenophobic attacks broke out in Durban South Africa last week with netizens accusing foreigners of taking their jobs and being behind the country’s high unemployment rates and poverty.
Xenophobia against migrants from other African countries is common in South Africa. In 2015 several lives were claimed in Johannesburg and Durban as immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs with its worst outbreak of violence against foreigners dating back in 2008 when more than 60 people died.
Small food shops were looted and buildings burnt down and a few died of gunshots as of Tuesday last week forcing foreigners to seek shelter in mosques and police stations
South African Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Lindiwe Sisulu, urged the police and other law enforcement agencies to act without fear or favor against people targeting foreigners.
Reacting to the recent attacks against foreigners, Economic Freedom Fighters Party (EFF) leader Julius Malema denounced xenophobic attacks against Africans during a party rally in Rustenburg in the North West on Sunday. He called upon all Africans to unite and those who disagreed with the party or were xenophobic could ‘keep their votes’ warning supporters to refrain from attacking foreign nationals.
“This is self-hate and must come to an end. If it makes EFF lose votes, let it lose votes on principles not on political expediency to want to appeal. We need to do away with this nonsensical idea that was imposed on us by colonizers, that we must dislike each other. By reclaiming our land, we will gain independence through the ownership of our continental land, and we shall then have a true one, South Africa. We are unable to come together because we are divided into colonial lines. We need to do away with that, we need to love our African brothers everywhere,” he noted during a press briefing.
