The death toll from two weeks of anti-immigrant violence in South Africa rose to 50 on Sunday as concerns mounted for an estimated 35,000 people displaced by the backlash.
As thousands headed for the borders to return home, a growing humanitarian crisis was developing domestically as hordes of foreigners fled their slum homes and poured into police stations, community centers and churches.
Government leaders descended on troubled spots around the country in a bid to answer criticism of official dithering as Sunday newspapers carried alarming headlines such as “State of Emergency” and “Ethnic Cleansing, SA Style.”
The president of the ruling African National Congress Jacob Zuma faced an angry crowd in a rundown area east of Johannesburg where he urged people to be tolerant of foreigners.
“Fighting won’t solve your problems but will instead exacerbate them and they will therefore remain unsolved,” he said as locals demanded the government deal with crime and unemployment they blame on immigrants.
The Red Cross in South Africa said it is caring for 25,000 destitute people around violence hotspot Johannesburg with another 10,000 sheltering at community centers in the tourist hub of Cape Town.
Police said 50 people had died in the wave of murders, rapes and looting in the Johannesburg region, which began on May 11 before spreading nationwide. An estimated 700 people have been arrested.
National police spokesman Dennis Adriao said there was fresh violence in four provinces overnight, but that there had been no new fatalities.
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday night broke his virtual silence on the deadly violence against immigrants from other parts of Africa, condemning the attacks as an “absolute disgrace”.
In his first major speech to South Africa on the violence that has gripped the country for the past two weeks, the president called for an end to “cold-blooded acts of murder, brutal assault, looting” that have left more than 50 people dead and tens of thousands fleeing their homes.
But Mbeki’s televised speech came amid growing criticism of his lack of leadership during two weeks of attacks that have spread nationwide while the government stands accused of failing to act decisively to confront the violence or acknowledge its causes.
The president described the attacks as “savagery” and called on South Africans to remember the support of other countries on the continent during the struggle against apartheid. He also warned that the targeting of foreigners has spilled over to attacks on South Africans.
“What begins as attacks against people from other countries also involves, as we have seen, the killing, the raping, the looting of property belonging to fellow South Africans,” he said. “This is a time for unity. It is a time to speak with one voice against something, that if it takes root, will take us back to a past of violent conflict which no one among us can afford.”
Mbeki ruled out putting into camps the estimated 3 million refugees from Zimbabwe, and people fleeing conflict in other parts of the continent, and said they must be integrated into South African communities.
Critics have accused Mbeki of failing to heed the warning signs of looming violence and then hesitating to act when the killing began. The president waited 10 days to send troops into the townships.
South Africa’s largest-selling newspaper, the Sunday Times, said Mbeki should resign because he has “shown himself to be not only uncaring but utterly incompetent.”
“Throughout the crisis — arguably the most grave, dark and repulsive moment in the life of our young nation — Mbeki has demonstrated that he no longer has the heart to lead,” the paper said in a front-page editorial.
The government has sought to deflect charges that Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” in dealing with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe contributed to millions of Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa, and that he then failed to treat the influx as a refugee crisis.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in