SOUTH Africa's police have stepped up the arrest of illegal immigrants across the country in response to the recent wave of xenophobia that swept across the nation as the government seeks to assuage local resentment.
Over the last three weeks, South Africa has been plagued with horrific xenophobic attacks in which hundreds of African migrants have been murdered in cold blood by armed Zulu mobs. Violence erupted after Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini, said foreigners should leave South Africa and since then, Africans have been attacked in Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Although the violence has abated over the last week, local resentment still remains as Zulus still believe that it is other Africans taking their jobs, which is responsible for their poverty. In a bid to show that it is doing something, the South African police arrested 198 illegal immigrants in a raid in Johannesburg yesterday.
Police backed by soldiers arrested a total of 212 people in the Lenasia township, south of Johannesburg, following tip-offs that indicated criminal activity in the area. Police spokesman Kay Makhubela said, however, that the raids were not part of the government’s response to the xenophobic attacks.
Mr Makhubela added: “The army was backing us during the raid and when we came across people without legal documents, home affairs officials screened them. Of those arrested, only 14 were South African citizens and all 212 will appear in court next week after unlicensed firearms, other weapons and marijuana were seized."
Millions of African migrants work in South Africa, often on construction sites, as casual labourers or in the retail industry where locals have little expertise as a result of the legacy of apartheid. King Zwelithini has been accused of triggering the violence after publicly saying foreigners needed to leave the country.
After his comments, the spate of attacks revived memories of xenophobic bloodshed in 2008, when 62 people were killed, tarnishing South Africa’s tolerant post-apartheid image. Parliament has been suspended this week so lawmakers can spend their time delivering anti-xenophobic messages in their constituencies.
