Foreign nationals speak out against attacks

DURBAN CBD became a no go area early this week after violent xenophobic attacks broke out in various parts of the city centre which saw the Public Order Police unit use rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse gatherings of locals and foreigners in an uneasy, tension-filled standoff.

Matters escalated when reports were received of looting of foreign owned shops in the CBD on Monday morning. All foreign owned, and most other shops around the city were forced to close their doors with many visitors to the city hurrying to get away from the violence.

Police earlier confirmed that at least one thousand foreign nationals had rallied together after the violent looting.

Kapele Mutachi, the public relations officer of the Congolese Solidarity Campaign, said although he was not part of the standoff, he believed it stemmed after shops in the vicinity of Victoria Street were torched and looted.

Mutachi said the wave of violence moved through the CBD to The Workshop where more foreigners, many of whom have stalls at the Workshop, were attacked.

“I think some people (foreigners) decided to come together and give them (looters) some stiff resistance,” he said.

At Point Road, where violence was building among resisting foreign nationals, George Nditi told Berea Mail, “The situation is very bad, we’ve been living in harmony here (Point Road) since 2002, I don’t understand why this is all happening.”

Nditi said he had immigrated to South Africa 13 years ago from Tanzania. “My life is here, my kids are here, I can’t go anywhere else and leave my family!”

“These people came from nowhere, they came in two taxis to the city, like a Quantum so nobody was suspicious. They had guns, knives and pangas and were looting, from the Berea, Russell Street and were coming to us in the Point. We were the last stop so our brothers called us to tell us what was happening and warned us,” he said.

Nditi was standing outside closed shops in Point Road along with other foreign nationals. In a standoff with police a few metres away, fed up foreign nationals were engaged in heated discussions with police before rubber bullets were fired.

More foreigners at street corners around Point Road were seen carrying pangas, bush knives and batons, presumably to protect themselves from more attacks.

Captain Bheki Simelane, communications officer at Point SAPS said foreigners had toppled bins, broken bottles and set fire to tyres along Point Road opposite the China Mall (formerly The Wheel) in an attempt to safeguard themselves from violent attacks and looting at the Point.

“The Point area has a large foreign national contingent and we have never had such problems before,” he said, adding that he hoped the situation would settle before nightfall.

Mutachi meanwhile is very concerned about the “volatile situation.” “It is getting out of hand, I think the only solution is for the army to come in.

“They cannot allow things to get to this point. We as foreigners have no options and are hoping that the politicians can understand the situation and do something to help us quell the violence,” he said.

Mutachi said the Congolese Solidarity Campaign had high hopes of an end to the xenophobic attacks with the Peace March for a United Africa planned for Thursday, 16 April.

“On Tuesday morning, we came from a meeting with a delegate from the office of the premier. We were told we would convene after lunch, but when we got out of the meeting in City Hall, the city was in disarray and we didn’t know what was happening, so we had to get to safety.

The people just looted all the shops they thought was foreign. How do they know which is a foreign shop, the looting will definitely have a negative impact on the economy, something has to be done,” he said.

Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal government and eThekwini municipality strongly condemn the recent spate of sporadic incidents of violent attacks that broke out in the Durban Central Business District on Tuesday, directed at foreign nationals.

eThekwini Municipality’s Head of Communications, Tozi Mthethwa said, “Government and the City of eThekwini are once again, calling for an immediate end to the continued attacks on foreign nationals in the province and the crime associated with the violence.”

“We condemn these attacks and assert that lawlessness will not be tolerated. Law enforcement agencies will deal with those that break the law,” said Premier Senzo Mchunu.