Fears of xenophobic violence in South Africa when World Cup ends

Cape Town - As the World Cup nears its final match on Sunday, a dark side of South African society has emerged with an exodus of Zimbabweans out of Cape Town as people fear a renewal of the 2008 xenophobic violence which led to 30,000 people leaving the country.

Times Live reports foreign nationals, mainly Zimbabweans, are starting to leave the area and Somali traders were not renewing their stocks, or only keeping minimal amounts, for fear of looting. Police say, however, that there are only rumours at this point and they can’t take action on the basis of gossip alone. The rumours began even before the World Cup but it was only during the soccer extravaganza that authorities began to act. Now the Human Rights Commission (HRC) is organising a Cabinet-level meeting to make plans to preempt any xenophobic violence that might occur. Business Day reported HRC Deputy Chairman Pregs Govender said:

“We have met with Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, who is chairman of the cabinet inter-ministerial committee, on Monday to discuss these threats and we are planning an urgent high-level meeting with relevant departments on how they were effecting the commission’s 2008 recommendations.”

The Western Cape’s provincial commissioner, Mzwandile Petros, has convened the Cape Town safety forum and called on civil society groups to help. Meanwhile Defenceweb reports police minister Nathi Mthethwa saying the government won’t tolerate violence against foreign nationals. Mthethwa is the chairperson of the recently-established Inter-Ministerial Committee on Xenophobia had this to say:

“We will not tolerate any threat or act of violence against any individual or sector of society, no matter what reasons are given to justify such threats or actions. Government is closely monitoring these xenophobic threats by faceless criminals whose desire is to create anarchy. We want to assure society that our police are on the ground to thwart these evil acts.”

Mthethwa added:

“We have over the last year emphasised the important role that crime intelligence needs to play in the fight against crime and the need to rejuvenate our crime intelligence to service all aspects of policing. This way police are able to thwart any form of criminality before it happens.”

People from townships in the Gauteng province have told Digital Journal in the past that they are angry that the government allows people from all over Africa to come and take their jobs and their hard-earned money. The way they see it is they are already on the edge of survival and don’t need competition. However, a West African told me that, in his view South Africans, are simply lazy. The two perceptions are certainly a recipe for conflict; add to that an estimated 15,000 jobs will likely be lost after the World Cup ends.