South Africa debates army deployment to quell violence

South Africa debates army deployment to quell violence

MURDER IN MIND: Two members of the mob sharpen their machetes on the ground as a crowd armed with clubs, machetes and axes goes on a rampage in Reiger Park on Tuesday, May 20

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SOUTH Africa was under pressure on Tuesday to bring in the army to quell growing xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals which have so far left 22 people dead.

The growing calls came as relief agencies rushed to the aid of at least 15 000 foreign nationals, many of them Zimbabweans, who have fled South African death squads and are now crammed in temporary homes – mainly community halls, churches and police stations.

There was more fighting and unconfirmed reports of new deaths Tuesday, but the violence did not appear as widespread as in recent days in the shantytowns around Johannesburg. The official death toll remained at 22, although some newspapers reported 25 deaths.

South Africa’s Safety and Security Minister, Charles Nqakula – still reluctant to order troops to take over policing of Johannesburg’s volatile neighbourhoods – announced the deployment of "specialised units" to combat the violence.

"We are going hard on the situation," he told foreigners sheltering in a police station in East Rand.

He said the number of police would be increased and there would be visible police patrols in areas hit by xenophobic attacks.

Local government minister for Gauteng Qedani Mahlangu said a provincial disaster management centre had been established to help foreign nationals with arrangements to relocate -- if they wish to do so -- and to provide them with food.

Nqakula said displaced foreign nationals would be relocated to habitable places -- they would not have to stay in the open space near the Primrose Police Station.

Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the department would not deport any of the foreign nationals, whether documented or not.

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it; foreigners have helped to develop the economy of the country -- we cannot be seen as attacking people,” she said.

At least 1,500 women and children had been accommodated at the Primrose Methodist Church. Men have been staying in the open space near the police station.

Martin Barnard, founder of Chubby Chums which runs a feeding scheme, said he expected the number of displaced foreign nationals to increase.

“We need blankets for women and children,” he said.

Fadiga Machava from Mozambique said he had been sleeping on the bare floor of the police station since Saturday.

He was attacked in Makause informal settlement and went to the police station for protection. All his possessions were looted by the mobs.

Nqakula told journalists that police had done their best under the circumstances by opening police stations to provide shelter for the displaced.

But there were calls for the army to patrol the townships. In a debate on the crisis in the Gauteng provincial legislature, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, Jack Bloom, accused the government of failing to respond forcefully enough to the crisis.

"President Thabo Mbeki is notoriously allergic to admitting that even the most obvious crisis is a crisis, so yet again people die because he is out of touch with reality, both here and in Zimbabwe," he said, adding that the military had to be sent into the townships to back up the police.

The move was backed by a coalition of South African human rights groups, which called the violence a "national emergency".

But others have questioned whether the army can make a difference, pointing to its ineffectiveness in quelling anti-apartheid unrest in the past and the difficulties of patrolling the warren-like squatter camps.

The premier of Gauteng province, Mbhazima Shilowa, did not oppose the deployment of troops but said the decision had to be made by the government.

"The situation is dire and we must intervene and intervene forcefully," he said. "What kind of nation are we building - one which rejoices at someone who is burning, who is engulfed by flames?"

DESPERATE: Foreign nationals queue for food at a hall after fleeing their homes

The contempt with which some of those responsible for the violence regard the authorities was exposed yesterday when Robert McBride, a regional police chief and prominent ruling African National Congress official, addressed a crowd in Ramaphosa squatter camp where several people have been killed.

Someone threw a bottle at him, the police responded by firing plastic bullets and the mob returned to burning shacks.

The violence has been described as "shameful and criminal" by Mbeki. "Citizens from other countries on the African continent and beyond are as human as we are and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity," he said.

The ANC party leader, Jacob Zuma, also condemned the assaults on people from countries that provided refuge to ANC activists when their organisation was banned during the apartheid era.

He said he was disturbed that some of the attackers were singing Awuleth’Umshini Wam (Bring Me My Machine Gun), a song that has become the anthem of Zuma's supporters.

Zuma blasted: "That is a serious matter, for that song belongs to the ANC, it doesn't belong to unknown people.

"The question is, who are those people who are misleading the public by singing an ANC song when they're doing the wrong thing? People are abusing (an) ANC song for wrong things that they're doing and they must be condemned."

Zimbabweans, Malawians, Mozambicans and others from neighbouring countries have been the main targets in the wave of xenophobia. They came to South Africa, the region's economic hub, looking for work and ended up sharing squatter camps with poor - and increasingly frustrated - South Africans.

Although South Africa is more prosperous than its neighbours, it suffers high unemployment and widespread housing problems, especially among the black majority.

KILLING MACHINE: Mobs rampage through Reiger Park township on Tuesday
KILLING MACHINE: Armed mobs rampage through Reiger Park township on Tuesday

The respected Institute for Race Relations put the blame for the violence firmly on the government, saying ineffective policies had "created a tinder box of unmet expectations which exploded."

The institute cited a long list of factors: a failure to clamp down on violent crime; corruption, inadequate staffing and low morale among the police; a lack of real job-creating policies; poor delivery of government services; and porous border controls.

It also said heavy-handed police action against immigrants, as evidenced by a raid this year on a Johannesburg church housing hundreds of Zimbabweans, led to the impression among poor South Africans that foreigners are "fair game."

The institute criticised President Thabo Mbeki for what it called "wholly inappropriate and incompetent" diplomacy with Zimbabwe's autocratic leader, Robert Mugabe.

David Stephens, acting secretary general of the South African Red Cross Society, said he was preparing for a long-term crisis, working with international and local groups and government officials to co-ordinate aid efforts.

"It won't go away tomorrow," he said.

Stephens said in some cases, aid workers at shelter sites would plan to feed a couple of hundred people based on daytime counts, only to run out of food in the evening when hundreds more showed up.

He said the displaced need tents. Women and children are squeezed into rooms at police stations and other shelters, but many men must sleep in the open on cool Southern Hemisphere autumn nights.

Allaudin Sayed of Gift of the Givers, a South African relief group, said local people were donating diapers, toys, buckets for washing and other items. The Salvation Army set up collection centres and was calling for blankets and soap.

The international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said humanitarian groups were "being stretched to the limit."

MSF, which has mobile teams treating the injured, said a lack of security was keeping aid workers out of some areas. - Staff Reporter/Agencies
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