It has been confirmed that the citizens of South Africa have so far looted shops and businesses belonging to Nigerian living in Durban and Johannesburg even as some other shops have been burnt. The information said that goods worth 400,000 Rand were lost in the process.

The President of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Ikechukwu Anyene, who made this known in an interview from Pretoria, South Africa today said: “in Jeppes Town, near Johannesburg, five shops were looted and one burnt while the estimated loss is put at One million Rand.

“The incidents have been reported to the police and we are still taking stock of attacks on Nigerians,’’ he said.

Ikechukwu said that the union has concluded arrangements to resettle 50 Nigerians affected by the xenophobic attacks, adding that many Nigerians were displaced at Jeppes Town near Johannesburg.

“We met about 300 Nigerians in Jeppes town, near Johannesburg, who fled for their safety and about 50 of them do not have any place to stay.

“We are making arrangements with the Nigerian mission in South Africa to get them a place to stay for their safety.

“The Nigerian union has also presented relief materials to those affected by the attacks and we are in touch with various branch chapters of the union in the provinces on their safety and security,’’ he said.

He called on te Nigerian Federal Government to put more pressure on the South African government to halt the attacks.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian foreign minister, Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali has assured on Thursday that Nigerians had so far not been attacked, saying it would only evacuate Nigerians only if the situation gets worse.

“With the discussions I have been having with Nigeria’s Head of Mission in Pretoria, no Nigeria​n ​has so far been affected. They informed me that they have called the Nigerian community and addressed them and told them to close their shops, stay home and keep out of trouble and obey the laws of South Africa.

“They have also confirmed that the South African authority has moved in to take actions that would forestall any further disturbance in South Africa.”

Aminu Wali said that it will move to evacuate Nigerian citizens if the xenophobic attacks get worse.

“If it gets worse it is the duty of our country to make sure our people are brought back, and we are taking that duty serious.

​”We are not prepared to allow any of our nationals to be subjected to such inhuman treatment.

“We are monitoring the situation and will now take action according to the situation that develops,” he said.
Xenophobia in South Africa dates back to 1994 and are mainly targeted at citizens of other African Countries.

In May 2008 a series of xenophobic attack left 62 people dead.

In the current attack, at least five people have been killed and hundreds forced to flee their homes in one of South Africa’s worst outbreaks of xenophobic violence in years. [myad]

Reasons of high unemployment and a failure to address growing inequality by the government have been advanced as the cause of a wave of anti-immigrant attacks in South Africa.

An analysts, Mr. Mienke Mary Steytler of the South African Institute of Race Relations said: “We believe that the cause of the xenophobic attacks is policy failure by the government. High unemployment and inequality are not being tackled.”

The violence against immigrants has left at least six dead and more than a thousand displaced since the beginning of the month, with attacks spreading from the east coast city of Durban to parts of the economic hub, Johannesburg.

“The root of this problem lies in our inability to bring about economic growth and decrease the inequality that plagues our nation,” said the main opposition Democratic Alliance’s leader in parliament Mmusi Maimane.

South African President, Jacob Zuma, on April 16, appealed for the end of attacks on immigrants as a wave of violence that has left at least six people dead threatened to spread across the country. In the past two weeks, shops and homes owned by Somalis, Ethiopians, Malawians and other immigrants in Durban and surrounding townships have been targeted, forcing families to flee to camps protected by armed guards.

“It is the hopelessness that results from unemployment that drives drug use and criminality in these communities, and underlies xenophobic attacks.”

In January, foreign shopkeepers in and around the vast township of Soweto, south of Johannesburg, were forced to flee and six were killed as looters rampaged through the area.

And in 2008, 62 people were killed in xenophobic violence across the city’s townships.

The current outbreak has been largely blamed on a speech last month by King Goodwill Zwelethini, traditional leader of the Zulus, in which he blamed foreigners for South Africa’s high crime rate and said they must “take their bags and go” — to loud applause.

The king has since said his words were misinterpreted, but for some, Zwelithini simply articulated what many were feeling.

“People are frustrated,” said Braam Hanekom, director of Passop (People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty), a Cape Town non-profit organisation that supports asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.

“It’s hard to fight for jobs. It’s hard to fix the economy. It’s hard to create opportunities. It’s very easy to blame someone, but it’s hard to blame the elected leadership who have the majority of support on the ground.

“It’s much easier to find a soft target to express your frustrations, whatever those frustrations are, and foreign nationals are the soft target that frustrated communities have chosen to pick on.”

– 1 percent of population –

Accused of flooding the country, foreigners in fact make up just one percent of the working population in KwaZulu-Natal province — where the latest violence began — and only four percent nationally, according to a study released last year by the Wits University-based Migrating for Work Research Consortium.

The researchers also found foreign workers were more likely to take jobs South Africans are not willing to do, or to start their own business: 21 percent were self-employed, 11 percent were employers.

In downtown Johannesburg earlier this week, as foreign traders closed shop and clustered anxiously on the sidewalk, South African Eveline Mangani elbowed her way in front of a camera and began loudly decrying the anti-immigrant sentiments.

“I’m very hurt by people saying they must be kicked out of the country, because I survive thanks to them,” she said.

“I get all my stock to resell from them. So I can put food on the table so that my five kids can survive. Now the shops are closed and look at my bag: it’s empty. I want the shops to open and I want them to be protected -– Somalis, Ghanaians, Ethiopians must be protected.”

The commercial success of foreigners running small general stores can be a sore point -– and a cause for envy, said Paul Ngema, provincial general secretary of the National African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC).

“When you look at people, they derive their income from running ‘spaza’ shops. Most of these foreigners, they come and also run the same small businesses -– and they happen to do it better than the local ones. You may call it perhaps jealousy.”

In January, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu was accused of fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment when she said foreign shopkeepers must share their trade secrets.

“Foreigners need to understand that they are here as a courtesy and our priority is to the people of this country first and foremost,” she was reported as saying at the time. “They cannot barricade themselves in and not share their practices with local business owners.”

But as the violence has continued the message from government has changed.

“Many (foreigners) are in the country legally and contribute to the economy and social development of the country. Many bring skills that are scarce that help us to develop the economy and are most welcome to live our country,” President Jacob Zuma said in parliament yesterday. [myad]