South Africans march against attacks on foreigners

THOUSANDS of people are expected to attend a march in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban in solidarity with the country’s foreign nationals.

The march, yesterday, which includes religious leaders and concerned citizens, comes after weeks of attacks against foreign nationals in which at least five people have been killed and 74 people arrested since the end of March, according to Colonel Jay Naicker, the police spokesperson.

Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma yesterday told parliament he condemned recent anti-immigrant attacks and urged for calm to be restored in areas impacted by violence.

At least four people have been killed in a wave of anti-immigrant violence that started two weeks ago in Durban, a key port on South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast.

Al Jazeera producer Mukelwa Hlatshwayo, also reporting from the march in the coastal city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, said that as many as 5,000 people had joined the prosession and that the atmosphere was calm with people ulilating and singing songs of solidarity.

Reuters news agency reported that bullets has been shot into the crowd but our correspondent said she had only witnessed a few people shouting into the crowd on the sidelines of the procession that “foreigners must go home.”

Many shops remained closed in the business capital of the country, Johannesburg in the Gauteng province fearing attacks as well.

Groups of people were said to have travelled to Durban from other provinces to join in the show of solidarity with the foreign nationals, Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Durban.

Similar attacks occurred in 2008 in which at least 60 people were killed.
Messages circulating on social media warned people in Gauteng province and KwaZulu-Natal to be on high alert for possible attacks and to also remain indoors.

In Malawi, officials have set up transit camps expected to house Malawians returning to the country, Kondwani Nankhumwa, the country’s information minister, said.
More than 2,000 foreigners have already sought shelter in refugee camps in Durban, a South African aid group said on Wednesday.