Anti foreigner mob kills 7 in South Africa

AP/San Diego Union-Tribune:

Mobs rampaged through poor suburbs of Johannesburg in a frenzy of anti-foreigner hatred over the weekend, killing at least seven people, injuring dozens and forcing hundreds to seek refuge at police stations.

Police said violence erupted after midnight Saturday in a rundown inner city area called Cleveland that is home to many immigrants. Two of the victims were burned and three others beaten to death. More than 50 were taken to hospitals with gunshot and stab wounds.

“It's spreading like a wildfire and the police and the army can't control it,” said Emmerson Zifo, who like many of the foreigners targeted was Zimbabwean.

The trouble began last week in the sprawling township of Alexandra. Angry residents there accused foreigners – many of them Zimbabweans who fled their own country's economic collapse – of taking scarce jobs and housing. The unrest has since spread.

...

There has been sporadic anti-foreigner violence for months, mainly aimed at stores run by Somalis accused of undercutting local storeowners. But the violence of recent days was on a much larger scale.

In another inner city suburb, Hillbrow, on Sunday an Associated Press photographer saw the body of a man who had been shot dead.

Another person was shot dead and two more wounded in similar attacks on Saturday in Tembisa in another part of greater Johannesburg. Police spokesman Manyadza Ralidhivha said scores of Tembisa residents went on a rampage, destroying property that belonged to foreign nationals, according to the South African Press Association.

Edgar Gweru, from Zimbabwe, said he was robbed of cash, his passport and DVD player. He managed to escape by climbing onto his roof and hiding there until 2 a.m., but he does not know what happened to the three people sharing his accommodation.

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This violence is a by-product of Mbecki's failure to resolve the situation in Zimbabwe. In fact he has facilitated Mugabe's monstrosities toward his own people further encouraging the migration into South Africa. He apparently has also lost control of the situation in his own country as a result.

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