SOUTH AFRICA: South African police deny return of xenophobia

Record ID: 454650

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: South African police deny return of xenophobia
  • Date: 15th July 2010
  • Summary: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (JULY 15, 2010) (REUTERS) POLICE OFFICIALS SEATED AS MINISTER OF POLICE NATHI MTHETHWA ADDRESSES MEDIA POLICE OFFICIALS LISTENING MEDIA AND OTHER OFFICIALS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NATHI MTHETHWA, SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF POLICE, SAYING: "Some of the people are working very hard to take us to pre-FIFA World Cup by the so-called xenophobia thing. The matter here is that this World Cup has been a success and it augurs well for South Africa, it's image in the world and those people who are influential in society, who try to distort and brainwash people about countries like South Africa, are going to find it very difficult." POLICE OFFICIALS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NATHI MTHETHWA, SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF POLICE, SAYING: "It is being peddled, it has been peddled, it is a very dangerous rumour mongering and information peddling because it has a potential of self fulfilling. We still assert, South Africans are not xenophobic people and we will challenge anybody anytime about that, that there are people who stand to gain out of this, giving this bad image to South Africa and supporting those things and we stand by that. That it is not going to happen because South Africans are not xenophobic people." MEDIA AND OTHER OFFICIALS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) GENERAL BHEKI CELE, SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, SAYING: "There are criminals, between 13 and 25 who are taking what has been on the air all the time, that there will be xenophobia and they run around saying hamba kaya (go home) and we say there is xenophobia. We argue very strongly, there is no xenophobia. There are criminals here covered in a xenophobia skin." MEDIA AND OTHER OFFICIALS SEATED JOHAANESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLICE DEPLOYED FOR WORLD CUP SECURITY SOLDIERS SINGING AS THEY MARCH
  • Embargoed: 30th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACRDZQTR2C5OAEMETMEJFJR0ZJ
  • Story Text: South African police have denied reports that the country is on the verge of a return to xenophobic attacks on foreign migrant workers. They accuse criminal gangs of spreading the rumours to cause fear.
    South African police on Thursday (July 15) denied reports of xenophobic attacks targetting foreign migrant workers in the country.
    Media reported recently that Zimbabwean, Malawian and Somali immigrants in townships in Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces have received threats of death or injury if they do not leave South Africa after the World Cup while Somali immigrants have had their businesses looted.
    Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said the reports were based on rumours aimed at spoiling the country's image after its successful World Cup.
    "Some of the people are working very hard to take us to pre-FIFA World Cup by the so-called xenophobia thing. The matter here is that this World Cup has been a success and it augurs well for South Africa, it's image in the world and those people who are influential in society, who try to distort and brainwash people about countries like South Africa, are going to find it very difficult," Mthethwa told reporters in Pretoria.
    Recent reports indicated that police had to go into several townships and rescue foreigners who were trapped inside by hostile mobs.
    A day after the end of the World Cup, South African security forces moved into townships in the Cape Town area following reports of attacks and threats against foreign migrant workers. Scores of workers from neighbouring African countries took refuge at police stations in the Western Cape on Sunday night (July 11), fearing for their lives after shops run by migrants had been looted.
    Police said they had arrested seven people after anti-foreigner incidents in the Western Cape but no one had been hurt.
    Flanked by senior police officers, the police minister insisted the problem is not widespread.
    "It is a very dangerous rumour mongering and information peddling because it has a potential of self fulfilling. We still assert, South Africans are not xenophobic people and we will challenge anybody anytime about that, that there are people who stand to gain out of this, giving this bad image to South Africa and supporting those things and we stand by that. That it is not going to happen," said Mthethwa.
    The national commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS) General Bheki Cele denied that all South Africans were xenophobic and laid the blame for the rumours at the feet of criminal gangs who want to loot foreign-owned businesses.
    "We argue very strongly, there is no xenophobia. There are criminals here covered in a xenophobia skin," Cele said.
    South Africa has attracted millions of workers from across the continent who compete with locals for scarce jobs and resources.
    Sixteen years since the end of white minority rule, poor blacks are frustrated that their social conditions have not improved and the ruling African National Congress's promises of better housing, education and healthcare have not materialised.
    Two years ago, their frustration boiled over and more than 60 people were killed during anti-foreigner attacks.
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