South Africa Police Say 22 Killed in Anti-Foreigner Attacks
Police in South Africa say 22 people have been killed in the past week and dozens wounded in a series of attacks directed primarily at foreigners in the Johannesburg area. More than 200 people have been arrested, but incidents continue sporadically as we hear from VOA’s Scott Bobb in Johannesburg.
Police fired rubber bullets and made dozens of arrests in an effort to quell sporadic outbursts of anti-foreigner violence in the Johannesburg area.
The violence began one week ago in Alexandra, a township in northeastern Johannesburg, but has since spread to more than a dozen mostly impoverished communities around the city.
Several thousand foreigners, primarily from neighboring countries, have taken refuge in police stations, churches and government buildings. Many of them say they were chased from their homes by mobs wielding sticks, knives and rocks.
Some have lost all their belongings. Dozens of homes have been torched and shops looted.
The victims say they are accused of taking jobs and public houses away from South Africans and of being responsible for the country’s high crime rate. But police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the attacks have been mostly criminal in nature.
“When one looks at the victims as well, there are South African citizens,” Mariemuthoo said. “So this is purely criminal.”
South African President Thabo Mbkei has urged police to move quickly to establish the causes and persons responsible for the violence, but he also urged ordinary South Africans to take a stand.
“It is important that the communities themselves should not stand aside and just say this is a police matter; that they should themselves act together with the police and together we should say it is very, very wrong and unacceptable that there should be this kind of violence,” Mr. Mbeki said.
Mr. Mbeki said he would create a commission to investigate the incidents. Former President Nelson Mandela and leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned the attacks. Many recall that they were accorded asylum in neighboring countries during the anti-apartheid struggle.
Analysts say some anti-foreigner feelings are due to South Africa’s economic difficulties, characterized by 40-percent unemployment, 10-percent annual inflation and major increases this year in prices for food and basic goods.
(Posted on May 19, 2008)
Comments
“The violence began one week ago in Alexandra, a township in northeastern Johannesburg, but has since spread to more than a dozen mostly impoverished communities around the city.”
That’s a bit of a loaded statement about ‘impoverished communities’. So in other words the real victims here are the black South Africans themselves. There’s never this kind of explaining when whites cause trouble let alone kill 22 people in a night… but even assuming ‘impoverishment’ is the factor here (and I don’t), When did impoverishment become an excuse to kill people? There’s no need to answer that…
Posted by Mathias at 6:59 PM on May 19
Given what we know about trends in South Africa, here is a little quiz question.
This problem will:
(a) Probably keep getting worse.
(b) Go away, because people learned that Nelson Mandela condemned the attacks, and they then remembered that love and peace are the future of South Africa.
Posted by Reader-1 at 11:19 PM on May 19
As someone who escaped that place in 1999 so I have 25 years of personal experience of that part of the World, the last few years’ support of the murdering despot President Mugabe by SA’s President Mbeki is now a major reason why the Zimbabwean refugees are in South Africa now. Any inquiry should record this as a fact and a cause of the current problems, but of course it will not.
The current (no pun intended) joke in South Africa is what did they have before candles? The answer, electricity, as the ongoing power cuts due to the government’s laws on affirmative action that has caused many black incompetents to be placed in positions of great responsibility has caused the highly skilled people who are mainly white, to leave the country. After all, would you work for a boss you know is incompetent and you have no chance of promotion because you are white? Before with Apartheid, there was good reason as being proven now. This is a fact, not a racist statement as some would scream. It is being proven.
So the big question is, will President Mbeki be indicted for the current killings and strife, the pictures of which are the same as when the old government was quelling the old terrorist African National Congress’s agitated riots in the same townships?
Do not hold your breath!
Posted by Brian Deller at 1:28 AM on May 20
“Several thousand foreigners, primarily from neighboring countries, have taken refuge in police stations, churches and government buildings. Many of them say they were chased from their homes by mobs wielding sticks, knives and rocks”
I see blacks can be quite “racist” towards outsiders. I thought only evil whites did that.
Posted by kc at 6:27 AM on May 20
Violence has reigned unchecked against whites for the last 10 years in SA. It is a country out of control and one where leadership sticks its head in the sand when asked to do something. So why has the press suddenly come to life because of a few black foreigners being killed? SA is well on its way to becoming another Zimbabwe, it is just taking longer for it to happen. I wonder what will happen when the World Cup starts in 2010? How many tourists will be robbed, killed in the hell hole? Move it to Australia before its too late.
Posted by Chuck at 6:29 AM on May 20
If there is any nation on Earth that can claim, legitimately, that it is being unacceptably ‘swamped’ with foreigners it is England.
The inundation of England has reached the extent that its great cities have been completely race-replaced, that hundreds of thousands of English emigrate in protest, that a shocking proportion of births are to foreigners and their descendants and that the official policy of the British state is to encourage the influx and privilege the foreigners whilst persecuting any who dare protest, and all the while operating a foolish ‘open-door’ immigration policy.
Be that as it may, (and the process has been going on for 50 years now - the minority status of the indigenous English is now an inevitability), it is remarkable that in all that time there hasn’t been a single instance of armed attacks against foreigners with the intention of driving them out - the closest it ever got was a few BNP parish councillors being elected!
With all the ingredients in this story (‘poor oppressed black south Africans, black ‘foreigners’ and apparent ‘racism’ , oh how the ‘anti-racist’ industry must be having kittens.
Posted by Kenelm Digby at 7:11 AM on May 20
Strange Black Africans seem to be upset about loosing their jobs to foriegners and riot against their illegal immigrants, while here in America both Obama and McCain want to legalize twelve to twenty millions illegal aliens in the Unitied States. We can expect these legalized lawbreakers to bring their relatives raising our population by 100 million according to some estimates.
Posted by Sardonicus at 7:56 AM on May 20
This is only the first inning in what is sure to be a double header of hell with South Africa losing both games. I once thought it would take 50 years for South Africa to crumble. I was wrong. It looks like it will only take 20.
Posted by Robert at 8:13 AM on May 20
Police in AMERICAN CITIES say 22 WHITE AMERICANS have been killed in the past week and dozens wounded in a series of attacks directed primarily at WHITE AMERICANS in the UNITED STATES. More than 200 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS and BLACKS have been arrested, but incidents continue sporadically as we hear from various police chiefs…Police fired rubber bullets and made dozens of arrests in an effort to quell sporadic outbursts of ANTI-AMERICAN/ANTI-WHITE violence in the UNITED STATES.
The violence began one week ago in Alexandra, Virginia but has since spread to dozens of cities througout the UNITED STATES.
Several thousand WHITE AMERICANS have taken refuge in police stations, churches and government buildings. Many of them say they were chased from their homes by mobs wielding sticks, knives and rocks.
Some have lost all their belongings. Dozens of homes have been torched and shops looted.
The victims say they stood against and spoke out against ILLEGALS and BLACKS taking jobs(through affirmative action and race-based preferance programs)they stood against and spoke out against rising taxes and have stood against and spoke out against houses being taken away from WHITE AMERICANS and GIVEN to ILLEGALS and BLACKS…they have stood up and spoken out of the ILLEGALS and BLACKS being responsible for the country’s high crime rate. But United Nations police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the attacks have been mostly criminal in nature.
“When one looks at the victims there are American citizens,” Mariemuthoo said. “So this is purely criminal.”
AMERICAN President Barack Obama has urged police to move quickly to establish the causes and persons responsible for the violence, but he also urged WHITE AMERICANS to take a stand.
“It is important that the victims themselves should not stand aside and just say this is an ILLEGAL/BLACK action that they should themselves act together with the police and together we should say it is the FAULT of the victims for having CAUSED this BECAUSE of their words and their words are unacceptable.
President Obama said he would create a commission to investigate the incidents AND the victims’ words. Former Presidential Pastor Jeremiah Wright and leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned the words leading up to the attacks. Many recall the struggle for civil rights.
Analysts say some ANTI-AMERICAN and ANTI-WHITE feelings are due to AMERICA’S economic difficulties, characterized by 40-percent unemployment, 10-percent annual inflation, major increases this year in prices for food and basic goods and the racist statements made by WHITE AMERICANS.
Effective immediately President Obama is suspending freedom of speech for WHITE AMERICANS…remembering the RACISM against HIM while running for President, the election that was DECIDED by the United Nations and GIVEN to Mr. Obama.
THINK ABOUT IT AMERICA!…does this REALLY sound that impossible?
If things keep going the way it’s going…THIS and MUCH WORSE will happen to WHITE AMERICA!!!
Original article
(Posted on May 19, 2008
Posted by Suzan Donoghue at 12:22 PM on May 20
In today’s Telegraph there was a report that in the last decade - the long to be remembered Labour decade - 2 million British left the country. Unlike the previous waves of mass emigration it was
not the unemployed poor, but the educated, the skilled tradesmen and the wealthy who are leaving. Wave England goodbye.
Posted by ciccio at 1:14 PM on May 20
Who’s up for a little conspiracy theory??
As a middle aged middle class white South African I would not dream of endangering my life by either riding on a bus, a train or in a taxi (not a cab, but a 15 seat minibus). To be able to accomodate the expected number of international visitors during the Soccer World Cup that is due to start in about 750 days, all this must change. There must be a safe mode of transport that is able to carry these visitors between their hotels, boarding houses and the soccer venues as well as their excursions to shopping centres and other places of entertainment. Will this happen in time? Given the incompitence shown by the SA government over the last 14 years, I very much doubt it.
Then there’s the problem of visitors being followed from the airport and robbed of their belongings - funny how the ones who declare they are carrying large sums of cash are targeted!!
There is also the matter of electricity supply. Ten years ago all the trend predictions indicated we would be in trouble, yet the government controlled electricity supplier (Eskom) still went ahead and mothballed existing power stations and halted all expansion plans - the end result is we are in trouble.
To alleviate the electricity supply problem a blanket decision was made to load-shed suburbs according to a published schedule - some being on a Monday - Wednesday - Friday schedule while the remainder being on a Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday schedule. Every second day in the schedule power would be cut for four hours (i.e. twice one week, once the following week, twice the week after etc.) My suburb was cut between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday.
The switchgear used to diconnect the supply was not designed for this application, it is a safety device intended to trip in case of short circuit. The switchgear is oil-filled and continuous switching causes the oil to carbonise, eventually short circuiting the switch which then catches fire. The oil of course should be changed before this devastating effect but our incompitents didn’t do it - the result - substations catching fire and disconnecting the suburb permanently (until it’s repaired)
Finally there are the soccer venues that need to be completed - they were started late and will be finished too late.
So when the whole shambles ends in chaos in 2010 the SA government will be severely embarrassed proving once and for all that it takes a white man’s organising abilities and a white man’s work ethic to accomplish the task on time and within budget (i.e. half the money does not go in his own pocket)
So how do we prevent the inevitable outcome? Incite violence against foreigners, kill a few refugees, burn some homes, loot some shops, rape a few women and show how incapable we are of controlling the mob.
Surely the Soccer World Cup will be taken away from us and given to a more deserving country.
Who will be blamed? Not the incompetent government, but the (black) people of SA, who will of course declare it unfair and a racist colonial plot to damage the SA image and prevent us from winning the cup, because our team will be too upset to play properly…!!!
This is of course all “tongue in cheek” - isn’t it???
Posted by flowerpower51 at 1:15 PM on May 20
I’m a South African resident. The obvious question is this: given that South Africa’s blacks were “exploited” by colonialism and apartheid, and apartheid never existed in the rest of Africa, why would millions of other blacks continue to stream to South Africa?
Furthermore there are continuous complaints by the Communist Party and its trade union allies that indigenous South African blacks are still being exploited by whites and that they are still being subject to white racism. Yet millions still stream across the border - those who voluntarily want to experience the same racism and exploitation, you suppose?
Actions speak louder than words. Blacks will literally die to be “exploited” by the largest remaining white community in Africa. Complain, they will, but deep down blacks seem to be utterly dependent on whites.
Posted by Anton at 1:39 PM on May 20
I had a professor from South Africa (a coloured gentlemen) who admitted unapologetically that inequality, poverty, crime, and so on have gotten worse since the fall of Apartheid.
He was a staunch anti-apartheid activist for many years, and now describes SA under it’s ‘elite transition’ as being “a place [he] wouldn’t particularly want to live.”
Posted by changing majors at 2:13 PM on May 20
What TF is wrong with this picture? I thought Zimbabweans and South African Bantus were soul brothers. That’s what Mugabe, Mandela, Tutu, Mbeki, etal. were telling each other, all these years, right?
Posted by Soprano Fan at 2:38 PM on May 20
This is terrible for the poor immigrants who are being attacked. They should send the military in to quell the violence, immediately.
However, the government also needs to stand up for the interests of black South Africans, their fellow citizens, and get a grip on this uncontrolled immigration.
Posted by at 3:10 AM on May 21
The economy of the world is about to crash
because the oil supply cannot meet the rising demand.
No one is going to fly to SA for the World Cup-they
wont be able to afford the air fare. The World Cup
may well be cancelled due to the emergency. In the
ensuing chaos, the West will not be able to help
the hapless Africans. The Afrikaners will have a good
chance to overthrow this lot and take back their
country. The trick may be to do it piece by piece.
Nature will work for them. After a few months the
Blacks may beg to be ruled again. If they are wise,
the Whites will not allow themselves to get into
the same situation again.
Posted by Freyr at 8:41 PM on May 21