Anti-immigrant violence spreads in South Africa, with attacks reported in Cape Town
CAPE TOWN: Anti-immigrant violence has spread to South Africa's second largest city, Cape Town, where mobs attacked Somalis and Zimbabweans and looted their homes and shops, police said Friday.
Hundreds of African migrants were evacuated overnight from a squatter camp near Cape Town, the hub of South Africa's prized tourism industry. Somali-owned shops also were looted in Knysna, a resort town on the southwestern coast.
"We don't know the exact number of shops looted and burnt, but it's a lot," said Billy Jones, senior superintendent with the Western Cape provincial police. He said that one Somali died overnight but it was unclear whether the death was linked to the attacks.
At least 42 people have been killed and more than 25,000 driven from their homes in 12 days of attacks by mobs that accuse African migrants of taking jobs and fueling crime. More than 500 people have been arrested.
The unrest began in Johannesburg area townships but has spread to other provinces. Authorities said a Malawian man was shot in Durban overnight and three other foreigners were stabbed in a separate attack in North West Province.
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Police expect more attacks over the weekend and said they would seek additional assistance from the military if necessary.
Troops have joined police in operations in some of Johannesburg's shantytowns. President Thabo Mbeki approved army intervention to quell unrest that has threatened to destabilize Africa's largest economy.
The violence comes amid power shortages and growing disaffection over Mbeki's pro-business policies. Soaring food and fuel prices helped push tensions between poor South Africans and immigrants to a breaking point. The attacks have also sent a chill through the business community.
Officials in the tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy, are worried overseas visitors will avoid the country. A number of Western governments have issued travel warnings for South Africa, and tour companies report rising cancellations.
Nearly 1 million South Africans earn their living from tourism, which accounts for 8 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The country is hoping to draw an additional half a million tourists for the 2010 soccer World Cup.
"This violence shows total ignorance and a society which is very eager to shed blood," said George Pambason, director of the Cape Town-based Alliance for Refugees in South Africa. "How can they host the world if they can't live side by side with people who are different from them?"
South Africa had attracted millions of African immigrants with the prospect of work in its booming economy and an immigration and asylum policy that was considered one of the most liberal in the world. That reputation is now in tatters.
Thousands of African migrants have chosen to return home.
Mozambique said that nearly 13,000 migrants and their families had left South Africa since the violence broke out, and officials in the Portuguese-speaking southern African nation expected the number to rise in the coming days.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe's opposition leader, said on Thursday that officials in his Movement for Democratic Change would help arrange transportation for refugees who wanted to go home to Zimbabwe, which is mired in a deep economic crisis.
Tsvangirai is trying to unseat President Robert Mugabe in a June 27 presidential run-off vote.
There are an estimated 3 million Zimbabweans in South Africa, making them the biggest group among some 5 million immigrants in a country with an estimated 50 million people.
Some Zimbabweans are willing to go home despite Zimbabwe's hyperinflation, shortages of food, and an upsurge in political violence since disputed elections almost two months ago.
Others, however, are waiting it out in overcrowded shelters.
Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, where many Zimbabweans have fled, said tensions were high among refugees, who still feared further attacks.
"One senses a profound anxiety and fear," Verryn told the South African Broadcasting Corp.