South Africa’s Zuma Calls Anti-Foreigner Violence ‘Shocking’

South African President Jacob Zuma condemned a wave of attacks against foreigners that has claimed five lives in the past week and said the government would seek to better control immigration.

“No amount of frustration or anger can ever justify attacks on foreign nationals and looting of their shops,” Zuma said Thursday in Parliament in Cape Town. “We condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms. The attacks violate all the principles South Africa embodies.”

As he was speaking, about 10,000 people marched in the easter port city of Durban to protest the attacks. Africa’s second-biggest economy is facing the worst violence against immigrants since 2008. More than 1,400 foreigners have fled their homes in Durban and nearby townships and are being housed in displacement camps set up by the government. At least 74 people have been arrested, according to the police.

The tension comes against the backdrop of a weakening economy and a 24 percent jobless rate. While the government blames criminals rather than xenophobia for much of the violence, the presence of thousands of immigrants in South African townships has stoked resentment among some locals who see them as competitors for jobs and housing.

“There are socio-economic issues that have been raised which are being attended to,” Zuma said. “These include complaints about illegal and undocumented immigrants in the country, the increase in the number of shops or small businesses that have been taken over by foreign nationals and also perceptions that foreign nationals commit or perpetrate crime.”
Durban Clashes

The streets of Durban’s city center became a battleground between locals and immigrants on April 14, with police using water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse crowds.

Small groups gathering around the city center were dispersed with water cannons as a precaution to avoid clashes and criminal activity, the police said on Twitter. In Benoni, east of Johannesburg, police fired rubber bullets and teargas as local residents attempted to loot foreign-owned shops and disrupt traffice, Johannesburg-based EyeWitness News said.

The ruling African National Congress called on the government to set up refugee camps as a way of stemming the attacks, a proposal criticized by human rights groups concerned that statements by public officials may be inflaming the tensions.
Refugee Camps

“One of the things the government must look at is the tightening of the management of immigration laws,” Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the ANC, said in an interview on Wednesday with the South African Broadcasting Corp. “If need be, establish refugee camps, screen people, check them, record them, vet them.”

Lawyers for Human Rights said it rejected the creation of camps.

“It has been shown in other parts of the continent to be a very dangerous and unhelpful way of housing and protecting refugees,” Patricia Erasmus, manager of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, said by phone from Durban on Thursday.

On March 23, the Durban-based Mercury newspaper cited Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini as saying foreigners were depriving South Africans of economic opportunities and should return home. The king’s office said his speech was misinterpreted.

Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, criticized Zuma for failing to respond to the remarks made by the king and similar statements, which are reported to have been made by the president’s son, Edward.

“You have lost control of the country because you have lost control of your own family,” Malema told Zuma in parliament. “You did not take the platform to ask the king to call upon the people of KwaZulu-Natal and everywhere else, particularly those who could have misunderstood him, to refuse to engage in violent activities.”