Red Cross reports an increase of foreign nationals seeking aid:Saturday 11 April 2015. Foreign refugees are fleeing for safety to the South African Red Cross after a spate of violence against them in KZN.
(SABC) The South African Red Cross says they have seen an increase of foreign refugees who are fleeing areas engulfed by xenophobic violence in the greater Ethekwini Municipality area. Close to 2000 foreign nationals are being accommodated at Isipingo, Greenwood Park and Chatsworth. Cyril Vezi of the Red Cross in Durban says that the organisation is running short of resources such as food and clothing for the refugees. "It is quite difficult to cope because we are running short of resources. Other non-governmental organisations have warned that xenophobic violence undermines the values enshrined in the Constitution. Paul Kariuki, interim chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Civil Society Coalition, says, "Any act that undermines the principles that we stood together for as a nation such as ubuntu is anti-democratic and is against the National Development Plan (NDP).
IFP leader apologises to foreign nationals for xenophobic attacks:Saturday 4 April 2015. Foreign nationals in Durban who were attacked this week are being housed at Merebank temporarily until they can return to their homes.
(Durban Action) Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has apologised to foreign nationals who were attacked in the south of Durban this week. Buthelezi visited a camp in Merebank in Durban where more than 300 people are being kept after they had to flee their homes. Buthelezi’s apology comes after King Goodwill Zwelithini's recent controversial call to have all foreigners deported from SA. Subsequently foreigners were attacked in Durban but the IFP president says the royal call and the attacks are not linked. "Please forgive us, because what has been done to you has broken our hearts. "How can South Africa be in 2015 the most xenophobic country on this continent?
The foreigners welcomed Buthelezi's gesture. “When you were speaking I felt like crying. Two burnt in xenophobic attack in Umlazi:Saturday 11 April 2015. More than 1200 foreigners have been left homeless in a spate of xenophobic violence in the past week in Durban.
(SABC) Xenophobic attacks continue to unsettle the country as several foreign owned shops were attacked in Umlazi in the south of Durban on Friday night. Two Ethiopian men sustained third degree burns when a group of armed people petrol bombed the tuck shop that they operate. As friends of the victims took them to hospital in a bakkie, people in a crowd of onlookers shouted that the foreigners will be killed. Xenophobia still a problem in SA: African Diaspora:Thursday 15 May 2014. ‘Xenophobia, attacks on gays undermining human rights efforts in SA’:Tuesday 21 January 2014. Protection of human rights in SA undermined by xenophobic attacks, widespread violence, among others(SABC) South Africa has received a mixed review on its human rights for 2013, this according to a report released by international Non-Governmental Organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The HRW says while South Africa's constitution provides strong protection for human rights, such protection is undermined by xenophobic attacks on the businesses and homes of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. HRW also cites widespread violence, including rapes and murders of lesbians and trans-gender people, as evidence that South Africa has not adequately responded to the violation of citizen's rights. Regarding the free flow of information, the group also points to the controversial Protection of State Information Bill. The report is an annual review of human rights practices around the globe. South Africa needs to acknowledge Xenophobia as a critical issue: SAHR:Monday 23 June 2014. More than 900 foreign nationals have lost their lives in xenophobic attacks since 2008.
(REUTERS) Spokesperson of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), Kayum Ahemd, says attacks on foreign nationals have become an economic issue rather than irrational hatred towards foreigners. He says although there is a criminal element connected to the xenophobic attacks, in most cases the occurrences are based on race. Speaking on SAFM’s Forum @8 Ahmed says South Africans need to acknowledge that there is a problem before it can be tackled. Ahmed says communities are in denial, and at some point the government also denied that xenophobia is an issue. The human cost of xenophobia:Thursday 29 January 2015. The looting of foreign owned shops have seen scores of people arrested with one Somali shopowner appearing in court in connection to the death of a 14-year-old boy(SABC) Three months after the South African government announced that it was planning to introduce a controversial stringent application process for refugees seeking asylum in the country, foreign-owned shops are being looted in Soweto and foreign nationals are being subjected to xenophobic attacks again.
The way in which ordinary South Africans embody, misconstrue and then act out the values, and outlook of our socio-political institutions when it comes to the issue of foreign nationals is too remarkable to ignore. Research done by the African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits, shows that government officials and South African citizens often express views that migrants, particularly those from African and other developing countries, take jobs and economic resources away from South Africans.