Tag: xenophobia

Sanef urges police to protect journalists

The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) has come out to condemn the intimidation of journalists as well as the confiscation of their footage by law enforcement officers.

This follows the incident in Alexandra during which Mozambican national, Emmanuel Sithole, was killed.

As a result, Sanef has approached Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, to raise their concerns over such incidents.

Sanef’s Mpumelelo Mkhabela says the concern is that the confiscation of cameras and the deleting of images is continuing and now taking a different turn as the media reports on xenophobic attacks around the country.

Mkhabela urges police to protect journalists when under attack, and not to take part in the attacking of the media personnel.

He tells SAfm’s AM Live that such incidents by the police should stop as they have no right to be confiscating material from the media.

Elderly Austrian nun raped in KZN

Police are combing a small KwaZulu-Natal midlands town for the killers of an elderly nun‚ who was allegedly robbed‚ raped and strangled over the weekend.

The 86-year-old nun was found gagged and bound with a typewriter cord‚ in her quarters at the Sacred Heart Missionary in Ixopo‚ police said on Monday.

The Austrian immigrant‚ who has been with the mission for 60 years‚ was found by another nun on Sunday morning.

She was alone in her room when the robbers struck‚ tied her up and robbed her of cash.

“Rape is also suspected in this matter. The victim was found tied with a typewriter cord. She was also gagged‚” said police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane.

It is understood that the nun worked closely with impoverished children in the community‚ and was described by her fellow nuns as having a “kind heart and love for children”.

Zwane said police were still looking for the suspects‚ who are facing charges of rape‚ robbery and murder.

“We are following all leads. We are also appealing to the community to come forward with any information that will help us solve this case.”

Source: timeslive.co.za

Indian shopper in Gauteng shot dead

A trip to Darrenwood Shopping Centre in Randburg, Gauteng, ended in a tragic death when an Indian man in his late 30s was shot dead during a robbery in the evening of 16 April.

According to Linden Police Operations Manager Captain Alex Vermaak, six to eight men entered a bottle store and a café at 7.15pm demanding cash.

“While this was going on, a customer stopped outside [in the parking lot] and got out of his car. As he tried to step onto the walkway, he was shot three times in the lower body and head,” said Capt Vermaak.

The Windsor West resident died on scene. Capt Vermaak said, “The suspects regrouped and jumped into a silver single cab [van] and drove off.” According to him, the owner of the café was hit on the head but refused to open a case. Instead, he closed shop and “ran off”. Linden Police are investigating the murder and robbery.

Capt Vermaak urged the community to assist the police with the investigations. “There were a lot of people around who might have information on the senseless act.”

The bottle store manager, who preferred to remain anonymous, said three of the suspects got away with R2 000.

His visibly shaken employee said they would have taken more money if one of their accomplices hadn’t opened fire on the deceased.

The deceased was described by his friends and family as a family man.

Brother-in-law Harold Reddy said, “He was a very kind-hearted person. He loved his family and did everything for his family.”

Reddy informed that the deceased’s wife had given birth to their second daughter a mere two weeks ago.
His older daughter is nine-years-old.

Colleague Peenesh Pillay says he was a very friendly person. “It’s very shocking to hear such news. We never expected anything like this to happen,” Pillay said.

Source: looklocal

Second white victim of hammer attack dies

Louwrens de Lange is the second man to have lost his life after being attacked with a hammer in the Secunda CBD on Friday.

De Lange and his pregnant life partner were walking near Standard Bank when a man (name still unknown) attacked them with a hammer.

He sustained serious injuries to the head and was admitted to the Evander Hospital.

Mr De Lange had bleeding on the brain and was transferred to the Witbank Hospital where he died.

His partner was also admitted to the Evander Hospital yesterday, but was released last night.

A man who was attacked after Mr De Lange and his partner, died the previous day in the Evander Hospital from head wounds.

The police have not yet released his name.

The hammer wielding man was eventually caught by a traffic officer and community members after he had attacked five people.

The attacker was also admitted to the Evander Hospital.

The police spokesman has not been available for comment.

According to eyewitnesses, the man began in the CBD and hit two men at Lynco and then went on to Secunda Bloemiste where he tried to go in, but the staff saw him and closed the door, he then hit the window.

He then went further in the CBD and near the KFC attacked a white man and a pregnant woman with the hammer.

The couple had a two year old child in a pram as well.

From there he ran in the direction of Roy Campbell Street and attacked another man with the hammer.

Some of the victims were taken to Evander Hospital by Langamed South Ambulance Services and two of the men sustained head injuries and are in a serious condition in hospital.

Source: looklocal

Suspects of xenophobic murder arrested

Three suspects have been arrested by the Gauteng police for the murder of a Mozambican national in Alexandra, while the manhunt for the fourth suspect continues. 35-year-old Emmanuel Sithole was stabbed on Saturday morning.

Sithole was reportedly a street vendor. Witnesses say he was approached by the suspects who took his goods without paying and thereafter an argument ensued before he was stabbed by black South Africans.

Foreigners often complain that black South Africans as well as the police take their belongings and threaten them if they complain.

The Sunday Times reported that the blacks were armed themselves with a wrench and knives.

At a press briefing for xenophobia on Sunday, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela said a team of officers were dispatched to track the suspects who were caught on camera, but the police say they are still investigating whether Sithole’s death was related to xenophobia or an act of criminality.

The murder was captured by a Sunday Times photographer. According to the report, they stalked Sithole, cornered him, stabbed him and left him for dead.

According to Colonel Dlamini from the SAPS, “Several exhibits that may be used as evidence will assist the arrest and police are hopeful that with the support of the members of the community and the media, the fourth suspect will be brought to book.”

The suspects are due to appear at Alexandra Court on Tuesday on charges of murder.

Earlier police offered a reward of up to R100 000 for information that may lead to the arrest and conviction of those who killed Sithole.

Fresh xenophobic attacks haunt Joburg CBD

Foreigners sought refuge at the Primrose police station on Wednesday night saying they were terrified, Gauteng police confirmed.

Attacks and vehicle stonings marked fresh xenophobic violence in Johannesburg.

“The group of [20] foreign nationals went to the police station saying they are afraid for their lives,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini.

Earlier, groups of people had gathered in the Jeppestown section of Jules street, near the Wolhuter Hostel, and threw stones at passing cars.

White motorists were attacked by roaming black mobs and reporters on the scene saw mobs running up to passing cars and trying to force their doors open.

An Ethiopian man was also filmed having a brick thrown at him, News24 reported.

In Dobsonville, to the west of Johannesburg, two Somalis were attacked and robbed in their shop.

One of the men was thought to have been pistol whipped and the other hit by a glass bottle.

The SA Police Service and Metro police said they would be monitoring the city and surrounds on Thursday to prevent any violence.

President Jacob Zuma called for calm in special pre-recorded messages broadcast on public radio and television, after five people were killed in clashes between foreigners, locals and police in Durban since Friday.

Zuma will make a statement in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon on the xenophobic violence which has swept across KwaZulu-Natal, ANC chief whip Stone Sizani said on Wednesday night.

“President Zuma is scheduled to make a statement on the unfortunate violence ahead of him taking oral questions in the National Assembly Thursday afternoon,” Sizani’s office said in a statement.

“After the President has delivered his statement, all political parties represented in the National Assembly will have an opportunity to make their declarations in reaction to the statement.”

Foreigners targeted in Ledig violence

Irate residents of Ledig near the Sun City resort outside Rustenburg, refused to allow North West Local Government MEC Collen Maine to speak to them on Wednesday.

“We could not allow the MEC to speak. We agreed yesterday (Tuesday) that all arrested people must be released by 10am (Wednesday), before the MEC address us,” said community leader Pakaza Mdluli.

Residents have waged a week-long protest over alleged missing tribal funds. A number of protesters have been arrested during the protests which centre on the alleged mismanagement of some R527 million of tribal and community funds.

“The issue about DJ (Ditsele Phologoane, the chairman of the Bakubung Economic Development Unit) is not paramount. The key demand is for all arrested people to be released,” Mdluli said.

After the failed meeting, some residents chanted:” Phanzi Phologoane, Phanzi” (down Phologoane, down), and as some headed home, a group of youngsters went to barricade the road. The police fired rubber bullets to disperse them.

Some residents now fear the protests will soon spiral out of control.

” If this toyi-toyi does not end now, criminal elements would use it to advance their activities. People will be killed all in the name of protest,” said Eugene Ngima, 60.

He said parents were afraid to send children to school.

“Will we be proud if our children failed at the end of the school year?” he asked.

“This burning of houses and shops must end now before more people are hurt.”

A shop was burnt down on Tuesday night, at the Ledig small industry, another shop was torched at the weekend and four foreign-owned shops were looted.

Gandhi’s granddaughter condemns xenophobic vigilantes

Granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Ela Gandhi, has called on South Africans to stand up against the wave of ill-discipline that, she says, is leading the country into chaos.

The statue of her grandfather in central Johannesburg was smeared with paint over the weekend.

Ela Gandhi has also condemned a range of recent actions in South Africa including xenophobic attacks, vigilante killings, disruptive behaviour and the defacing of statues. She says these are the acts of ill-disciplined extremists.

“ All that, I mean, it is a kind of an indication of an extremist viewpoint which is intolerant, which does not have the discipline to sit down and talk to people and let people understand where they come from, what they want and so on. Instead they take to the streets and begin to destroy things.”

Gandhi says it seems to her that it is open season for vandals to deface any statue that they do not like.

Gandhi says if the statue of celebrated and non-political Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa can be defaced in the Durban city centre, it can happen to any statue anywhere.

“These people who have the money to waste on paint, why don’t they use that money to develop our communities? Why don’t they use that money to stop violence against women and children. Why don’t they use that money in constructive ways? Do they have the interest of South Africa at heart when they do these things?

ANC has different approach to colonialism, says Mantashe

The African National Congress does not have the same attitude towards whites as Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, secretary general Gwede Mantashe says.

“When it comes to our attitudes we theorise colonialisation differently to Zanu-PF,” Mantashe told New24.

“That is why the ANC government will not use this approach of if a white man owns a farm it is revolutionary to kick that white farmer out and occupy it…”

This comes after Mugabe, who was in a two-day state visit in South Africa this week, refused to speak to journalists when he saw a “white face”.

Mugabe was in Soweto on Thursday visiting the Hector Pieterson Memorial.

Meanwhile the IFP in KwaMashu has called for aid after a mob “of thousands” overran police on Sunday night.

Foreign-owned shops in the township were looted and torched as locals attempted to drive out immigrants from other African states.

Inkatha Freedom Party spokesperson Mdu Nkosi said police officers were overwhelmed by the advancing mob on Sunday.

“The councillor from A Section and the men’s hostel informed me that last night [Sunday] he had done his best to try and appease the mob that had gathered but he was powerless. There were thousands of them and they even overran the police,” he told News24.

‘Xenophobic attacks won’t affect SA relations with Zim’

Zimbabwe’s Consul-General in South Africa, Henry Mukonoweshuro, says diplomatic ties between South Africa and Zimbabwe will not be affected by the on-going xenophobic attacks in the greater eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

Hundreds of foreign nationals from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia and Somalia have been displaced after xenophobic attacks in Durban. Close to 2000 foreign nationals are being housed in three temporary makeshift camps.

Mukonoweshuro says they will be working closely with their South African counterparts to find a solution and put an end to the on-going violence.

“It is just a question of a few misguided individuals. To some extent I think some vagrants who think if they create chaos people will run away from their homes. Then they can vandalise and steal but my president was here a few days ago and met with President Jacob Zuma and elevated political and economic relations, our people are here.”

Mukonoweshuro says talks with Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba are continuing to address the issue.

“This is a dent but I mean look, these problems are never at any one time planned.”

There’ve been reports of attacks in Umlazi, KwaMashu, Inanda and Siyanda

Meanwhile, eThekwini Metro police say about five shops owned by foreign nationals were set alight and several others looted in townships in the Durban area Sunday night.

More than a dozen foreign owned businesses have been looted since the violence began, Somali Hassan Ali says all his shops in KwaMashu, north of Durban, have been looted and burnt.

Looting black mother kills infant by falling on him

A black mother from Soweto was busy looting say witnesses when her baby – who was strapped to her chest – died.

She said she did not notice there was anything wrong with him until neighbours alerted her.

The black mother, Zanele Majozi, 19, was allegedly running out of a vandalised shop in Kagiso with a bottle of cooldrink over the weekend when neighbours noticed blood on her top, where her one-month-old baby’s face was resting.

They said the baby’s tiny hand was facing the wrong way around. They told Majozi to unstrap him. When she did, they saw he was dead.

“She screamed, cried and collapsed. She would hold the baby to her chest crying and then fall on the ground, on top of the baby. She would get up, cry again then collapse on top of the baby again,” said a witness, Phindile Shabangu.

Shabangu, Gugu Maphumulo and a 22-year-old man who declined to give his name said they saw Majozi approach with the mob.

Shabangu said when the mob arrived at the shop, the men broke down the door. The women, some of them in their nighties, started screaming in excitement.

The baby against her chest, Majozi disappeared into the shop with the looting mob, they said.

Later, Maphumulo saw her running out of the shop. A few moments later, she saw Majozi crying and collapsing on top of her dead child.

The 22-year-old man said Majozi was aware that something was wrong with her baby’s arm. But it was his mother who noticed that the baby, bleeding from his nose and ears, was dead.

Shabangu said she and the other women followed Majozi to the clinic to beat her for being an irresponsible parent after they cleaned the shop and hid the remaining goods.

The xenophobic looting of foreign-owned shops appears to be spreading across Johannesburg with two men killed in Langlaagte on Sunday night and a spaza shop set alight in Alexandra this morning.

Ethnic tensions flared last week while looting spread across several townships following the shooting of 14-year-old Siphiwe Mahori in Snake Park, Soweto by a Muslim foreign national.

Cops allow looting say Pretoria residents

A vote of no confidence in Mamelodi East police has been passed by local community members as looting of shops, and injuring and killing Somali shop owners entered its third week.

The residents said they had lost all faith in the police and could not rely on them for protection.

Community members and local business owners said they lived in fear of criminal elements after police stood by and watched as young men went on the rampage, looting shops and in the process chasing foreign shopkeepers out of the township.

More than 300 Somali nationals have fled the informal settlements of Mandela Village, Phomolong and Nellmapius in Mamelodi East.

Businessmen told the Pretoria News they lived in fear of being attacked and having their businesses looted, saying they hardly slept at night worrying that they too would become victims once the youths ran out of foreign shops to loot.

“Soon there will be no foreigners to attack and no foreign-owned shops to ransack, and they will turn on us, and who will protect us?” asked one.

The looting began on Saturday three weekends ago, when youths swept through the informal settlements under cover of darkness, targeting Somali-owned shops, taking everything.

“We are effectively left with no shops to buy from; these people provide a service no local person has mastered,” a community member said.

Somali shop owners said they stood and watched while their shops were cleared, while others were beaten up and left inside shops which had been set alight.

They accused the police of standing by while the criminals looted and attacked.

Locals reiterated the claims of the foreigners, saying they saw police officers watch and do nothing as shops were looted.

Source: Pretoria News

Biden tells Germans they are xenophobic

Before remarking on Germany’s xenophobia, Joe Biden said the US needed to invest further in a skilled workforce and infrastructure.

US Vice President Joe Biden undoubtedly ruffled some feathers in Germany on Tuesday when he suggested the country was “xenophobic” and much less accommodating to immigrants compared to the United States.

Speaking at an event held by the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, DC, Biden gave a speech in which he described three things the United States needs to do to “keep our edge” in the global economy. One of these priorities is passing comprehensive immigration reform, but the way Biden chose to frame the issue has made headlines and raised plenty of eyebrows.

“We have to pass an immigration bill,” Biden said, as quoted by the Washington Examiner, which also obtained a recording of the segment. “Look at Germany, look at the rest of the world. We’re the only non-xenophobic nation in the world that’s a major economy.”

In a tweet by Detroit News DC Bureau Chief David Shepardson, the journalist said Biden went even further than that and added other countries in the mix, claiming that Germany, Japan, and China are all “not nearly as welcoming of immigrants” as the US.

Biden reportedly did not expand on his analysis, leaving many to question just how truthful it was. As noted by the German edition of The Local, the notion that Germany is hostile to immigrants doesn’t fit in with the facts inside Europe’s largest economy.

According to a May report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Germany has experienced a “boom” in immigration over the last few years, leapfrogging Canada and the United Kingdom to take second place as a top destination for migrants around the world, behind only the US. The OECD stated that between 2009 and 2012, permanent migration rose 38 percent as Germany moved up from eight place.

“Such a strong increase from one year to another has been rarely observed in any major OECD country,” Thomas Liebig, one of the study’s authors, said to Bloomberg. “We can clearly speak about a boom of migration to Germany without exaggeration.”

Meanwhile, The Local noted that new data from Germany’s Federal Statistics Office show more than 15.3 million people out of the country’s 81 million-strong population have a migrant background.

Before remarking on Germany’s xenophobia, Biden said the US needed to invest further in a skilled workforce and infrastructure, bemoaning the current lack of consensus on the issue.

“We have to invest in infrastructure,” he said. “That used to be an overwhelming bipartisan consensus in the united states of America. For the past 150 years it’s been a consensus; not at the moment.”

Notorious for making controversial statements or gaffes, Biden’s comments regarding Germany aren’t the first time he’s been scrutinized. The vice president made waves in the past for being caught on a hot mic telling President Obama the Affordable Care Act is a “big f**king deal,” announcing his support for gay marriage before the president himself, and making questionable comments like telling a politician in a wheelchair to stand up for an applause. – RT.COM

No hatred in the old South Africa

danr2

by Dan Roodt

[followbutton username=’danroodt’ count=’true’ lang=’en’ theme=’light’]

Like Dan Roodt’s Facebook page

Steven Friedman’s protestations about “apartheid denial” notwithstanding, it is true that many people are reassessing South Africa’s past in the light of the present, which is in various ways more brutal, more venal and more ugly than anything we experienced during the days of National Party (NP) rule.

The proof that apartheid public servants were far less corrupt than the current bunch of money-grabbing bureaucrats was that they drove distinctly cheaper cars and lived in middle-class and lower middle-class suburbs.

Today, state employees earn twice more than private-sector employees, on average, and openly ask for bribes and kickbacks during many transactions. Much of the conspicuous consumption, so vulgarly visible in South Africa’s major cities, is financed by corruption and profligacy with public funds, of which Nkandla is but the tip of the iceberg.

Ruminations on apartheid remind one of C Louis Leipoldt’s little poem, “Op my ou ramkiekie met nog net een snaar/ speel ek in die maanskyn deurmekaar.”

The apartheid “ramkiekie” with a single string normally ignores the many other ideologies and events that shaped South African history, including left-wing terrorism and the doctrine of so-called “people’s war” that destabilised our society to a far greater extent than mere segregation of institutions.

NP politicians were far less outspoken in their defence of segregation than many southern Americans. Alabama governor George Wallace, who ran for US president four times, famously said:

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Are Americans also forever tainted by segregation, or does it only apply to South Africa?

Despite segregation, there was no hatred in the old South Africa and people generally got on well. Today, there exists real hatred between groups, as exemplified by xenophobic violence and farm murders. South Africa ’s sadistic culture of violence with its rampant crime, including child rape, was fostered by the lawlessness of people’s war and surely not by apartheid.

This piece also appeared in Business Day on 4 April 2014.

Donate or subscribe to praag!