King Zwelithini Calls Imbizo Against Xenophobia in South Africa
April 17, 2015
South African City Press
King Goodwill Zwelithini has called an imbizo on Monday in response to pressure that he add his voice to moves to bring an end to xenophobic violence in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu announced this morning that the monarch, whose comments that foreigners should pack up and go back home are seen as having sparked the violence, had informed government last night of his intention to call the mass meeting.
Mchunu said the imbizo, which would be attended by the province’s traditional leaders, had come after several discussions with the monarch, who last weekend had continued to claim he had been misquoted, some two weeks into the violence.
King Zwelithini’s initial statement, made at a moral regeneration rally in Pongola, was followed by the first wave of attacks at Isipingo, south of Durban.
The province’s cooperative governance and traditional affairs ministry would assist with staging the imbizo, likely to be held at Currie’s Fountain Stadium.
In the meantime, the monarch was looking at going live on radio and television to call for calm.
Mchunu said the imbizo would remove any opportunity for those who wanted to carry out attacks on foreigners using the excuse of the monarch’s comments.
The about-turn by King Zwelithini comes after a series of meetings with provincial and national government and increasing pressure from the religious sector and civil society that he play a personal role in calling for calm.
Mchunu said the proposal around the imbizo had first been discussed at a meeting between the king and Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba on Monday night.
Durban and surrounding areas were quiet this morning, with no violence reported overnight according to SAPS spokesperson Colonel Jay Naicker.
-Citypress
Zim sets up xenophobia victim centre
April 18, 2015
Herald Reporters
The Civil Protection Unit has established a reception and support centre at the Beitbridge Border Post in preparation for the arrival of victims of xenophobia from South Africa, whose first batch is expected tomorrow. The reception centre has a carrying capacity of 1 000 people and can offer overnight accommodation to 600 adults and 40 children per day.
CPU director Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira said in an interview yesterday that they were ready to receive more than 1 500 Zimbabweans fleeing xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
“We have had initial arrangements to facilitate arrival and carrying of people from Beitbridge to their respective places,” he said.
“We are working under the guidance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have already sent a team to Beitbridge to resuscitate the current facilities where these people will be assisted.” Mr Pawadyira said they would continue engaging stakeholders to ensure that the victims of xenophobia get the necessary assistance upon their arrival.
Reports indicate that the victims will be transported to Zimbabwe by the South Africa’s Home Affairs department and would be handed over to authorities at the reception and support centre.
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa Mr Isaac Moyo said on Thursday that they had completed the identification and processing of repatriation documents for those who were displaced during the ongoing attacks in Durban.
“We have witnessed that there has been massive looting and ransacking in the houses belonging to our people,” he said. “More people have come forward in need of assistance to recover the properties they left behind in the houses.”
According to South African police, 100 people have been arrested in connection with the Durban attacks. Chiefs and churches in Zimbabwe yesterday condemned the xenophobic attacks as barbaric and urged Government to intervene to protect locals who are living in the neighbouring country.
The chiefs said they were going to approach the South African House of Chiefs to express their displeasure.
Speaking at a press conference, chiefs council president Chief Fortune Charumbira said South Africans were failing to understand the causes of unemployment in their country. “They should go back to the basics of the structure of their economy and find out who owns wealth and resources,” he said.
“The whites still control every sector of the economy. Unemployment is as a result of apartheid.”
He said it was unfortunate that a traditional leader, King Goodwill Zwelithini, became the champion of fighting fellow blacks, saying Africans were known to be hospitable.
Speaking at the same press conference, Chief Zvimba said South Africans should realise that they were also strewn around the continent before their independence.
Church leaders also castigated the xenophobic attacks, which have led to some deaths and left hundreds of foreigners displaced.
Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe’s Bishop Trevor Manhanga said it was sad that South Africans were attacking other nationals who contributed to the well-being of their country.
“South Africa was born out of efforts and sacrifice of the majority of nations in Sub-Saharan Africa and now it treats the nationals of those self-same nations as vermin,” he said.
“The church stands against such behaviour and must speak out and act against this tragedy of indescribable proportions that is unveiling before our very eyes. The Bible is clear in Exodus 22 verse 21 when God speaks to Israelites: ‘Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you were foreigners in Egypt.’
“And again in Psalm 146:9: ‘The Lord watches over the foreigner . . .’
“This gives the church and Christians clear instructions on how they are to relate to foreigners in their midst — and that is to treat them with concern and compassion. Sadly, this is not happening in South Africa,” Bishop Manhanga said.
Zulu King Made Public Statements Against Other Africans From Around the Continent
Herald Reporter
ZULU King Goodwill Zwelithini likened foreigners living in South Africa to ants and lice in a recent public speech which was a throwback to the inflammatory utterances that fanned the Rwandan genocide in 1994 where over one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed over an eight-month period.
During the approximate 100-day period from April 7, 1994, to mid-July, an estimated 500 000–1 000 000 Rwandese were killed.
The Hutu established a propaganda radio station RTLM and a newspaper called Kangura that urged the extermination of the Tutsi’s whom they labelled cockroaches urging Hutus to “cut down the tall trees”.
Tutsis are generally lanky and taller than Hutus.
Analysts said the effect of Zwelithini’s statement was to dehumanise foreigners in the eyes of the killers so that they would not have any qualms in quashing vermin.
King Zwelithini said he was not afraid to tell foreigners to leave because he was not an elected politician.
“The time is now for us to have a say,” he said. “I would like to ask the South African government to help us. We must deal with our own lice. In our heads, let’s take out the ants and leave them in the sun. We are asking that immigrants must take their bags and go where they come from.”
King Zwelithini’s speech was followed by xenophobic attacks that have claimed five people, including one Zimbabwean in Durban as the situation remains tense for foreigners living in South Africa amid reports over 2000 have been displaced.
Analysts have warned that King Zwelithini’s remarks could lead to genocide as the attacks were no longer xenophobic, but simply targeted at fellow Africans, which made the Afrophobia.
King Zwelithini blamed the ills facing South Africa on foreigners.
“It is painful to me when I look at the country that our forefathers and thousands of people fought for become a criminal den,” he said
“There is nothing more painful to me; I don’t sleep thinking about these things. That what kind of people that God has placed me amongst us who do not listen?
“In 2015, we are talking about South Africans as people who don’t want to listen, who don’t want to work, who are thieves, who rape children, housebreakers, lazy people who don’t want to work the land. They are people when, if other nations look at them, will say let’s go and eat the inheritance of the stupid people.
“As I’m talking to you now, there are all sorts of things hanging outside the stores, they brought untidiness to our streets, its filthy, you can’t even see what these stores were (with) foreigners in these areas,” he said in statements that went viral and triggered attacks on foreigners in Durban, the capital of Kwazulu Natal Province.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini can be dragged before international tribunals over his utterances which invariably incited South Africans to unleash terror on foreign nationals in that country, Prosecutor-General Mr Johannes Tomana has said.
Mr Tomana said the victims of xenophobia, which has claimed five lives, including one Zimbabwean in recent days and left thousands displaced, could also sue the South African government for damages.
He was speaking in an interview after giving a lecture at the National Defence College on the need to balance the protection of human rights and national security.
“South Africa is guilty of breaching international law and unless they do something to address that violation they will stand condemned in front of all right thinking international citizens,” said Mr Tomana.
Mr Tomana said foreigners living in South Africa also enjoyed the protection of their rights in terms of the South African Constitution.
“Those rights that are protected are actually being violated,” he said. “It actually creates the basis for you to claim damages.”
Mr Tomana said the obtaining situation across the Limpopo placed an obligation on the South African government to take appropriate measures to stop xenophobic attacks.
“The South African government must account for the culprits and redress the injury that has been afflicted on those that have been victims of the barbaric behaviour,” he said.
Mr Tomana also urged governments from where the victims come from “to insist that justice must be done”.
The Zulu King now faces a charge of hate speech and violating human rights from Western Cape organiser of the SA National Defence Union.
Mr Tim Flack, famously booted out of a Parliament committee meeting in 2013 for wearing shorts, said he was spurred into action after watching complaints on Twitter that not enough was being done to stop xenophobic violence in South Africa by the country’s Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba.
He decided to go ahead and lay the charge online on the SA Human Rights Commission’s website, for allegedly inciting violence, and sedition.
He said the commission acknowledged his complaint, telling him it had been referred to its KwaZulu-Natal office.
The rights Flack alleges were violated by the king include the rights to dignity, security, life, movement and residence, contained in the Bill of Rights.
This followed reports of a speech he made in Pongola, KwaZulu- Natal, towards the end of March in which the king complained about crime and dirty streets.
SAHRC spokesperson Isaac Mangena could not immediately confirm Flack’s complaint, but said he had just returned from an SAHRC trip to KwaZulu-Natal, which included a visit to the king’s office for a similar complaint received a few weeks ago.
He would not say who had laid that complaint, nor the outcome of the meeting at the king’s office.
City Press reported that king said his words had been lost in translation and that he had been misquoted.
Mangena said SAHRC team had visited camps housing displaced people and lamented the poor conditions there, which included two children being taken to hospital by ambulance to be treated for diarrhoea.
South African City Press
King Goodwill Zwelithini has called an imbizo on Monday in response to pressure that he add his voice to moves to bring an end to xenophobic violence in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu announced this morning that the monarch, whose comments that foreigners should pack up and go back home are seen as having sparked the violence, had informed government last night of his intention to call the mass meeting.
Mchunu said the imbizo, which would be attended by the province’s traditional leaders, had come after several discussions with the monarch, who last weekend had continued to claim he had been misquoted, some two weeks into the violence.
King Zwelithini’s initial statement, made at a moral regeneration rally in Pongola, was followed by the first wave of attacks at Isipingo, south of Durban.
The province’s cooperative governance and traditional affairs ministry would assist with staging the imbizo, likely to be held at Currie’s Fountain Stadium.
In the meantime, the monarch was looking at going live on radio and television to call for calm.
Mchunu said the imbizo would remove any opportunity for those who wanted to carry out attacks on foreigners using the excuse of the monarch’s comments.
The about-turn by King Zwelithini comes after a series of meetings with provincial and national government and increasing pressure from the religious sector and civil society that he play a personal role in calling for calm.
Mchunu said the proposal around the imbizo had first been discussed at a meeting between the king and Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba on Monday night.
Durban and surrounding areas were quiet this morning, with no violence reported overnight according to SAPS spokesperson Colonel Jay Naicker.
-Citypress
Zim sets up xenophobia victim centre
April 18, 2015
Herald Reporters
The Civil Protection Unit has established a reception and support centre at the Beitbridge Border Post in preparation for the arrival of victims of xenophobia from South Africa, whose first batch is expected tomorrow. The reception centre has a carrying capacity of 1 000 people and can offer overnight accommodation to 600 adults and 40 children per day.
CPU director Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira said in an interview yesterday that they were ready to receive more than 1 500 Zimbabweans fleeing xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
“We have had initial arrangements to facilitate arrival and carrying of people from Beitbridge to their respective places,” he said.
“We are working under the guidance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have already sent a team to Beitbridge to resuscitate the current facilities where these people will be assisted.” Mr Pawadyira said they would continue engaging stakeholders to ensure that the victims of xenophobia get the necessary assistance upon their arrival.
Reports indicate that the victims will be transported to Zimbabwe by the South Africa’s Home Affairs department and would be handed over to authorities at the reception and support centre.
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa Mr Isaac Moyo said on Thursday that they had completed the identification and processing of repatriation documents for those who were displaced during the ongoing attacks in Durban.
“We have witnessed that there has been massive looting and ransacking in the houses belonging to our people,” he said. “More people have come forward in need of assistance to recover the properties they left behind in the houses.”
According to South African police, 100 people have been arrested in connection with the Durban attacks. Chiefs and churches in Zimbabwe yesterday condemned the xenophobic attacks as barbaric and urged Government to intervene to protect locals who are living in the neighbouring country.
The chiefs said they were going to approach the South African House of Chiefs to express their displeasure.
Speaking at a press conference, chiefs council president Chief Fortune Charumbira said South Africans were failing to understand the causes of unemployment in their country. “They should go back to the basics of the structure of their economy and find out who owns wealth and resources,” he said.
“The whites still control every sector of the economy. Unemployment is as a result of apartheid.”
He said it was unfortunate that a traditional leader, King Goodwill Zwelithini, became the champion of fighting fellow blacks, saying Africans were known to be hospitable.
Speaking at the same press conference, Chief Zvimba said South Africans should realise that they were also strewn around the continent before their independence.
Church leaders also castigated the xenophobic attacks, which have led to some deaths and left hundreds of foreigners displaced.
Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe’s Bishop Trevor Manhanga said it was sad that South Africans were attacking other nationals who contributed to the well-being of their country.
“South Africa was born out of efforts and sacrifice of the majority of nations in Sub-Saharan Africa and now it treats the nationals of those self-same nations as vermin,” he said.
“The church stands against such behaviour and must speak out and act against this tragedy of indescribable proportions that is unveiling before our very eyes. The Bible is clear in Exodus 22 verse 21 when God speaks to Israelites: ‘Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you were foreigners in Egypt.’
“And again in Psalm 146:9: ‘The Lord watches over the foreigner . . .’
“This gives the church and Christians clear instructions on how they are to relate to foreigners in their midst — and that is to treat them with concern and compassion. Sadly, this is not happening in South Africa,” Bishop Manhanga said.
Zulu King Made Public Statements Against Other Africans From Around the Continent
Herald Reporter
ZULU King Goodwill Zwelithini likened foreigners living in South Africa to ants and lice in a recent public speech which was a throwback to the inflammatory utterances that fanned the Rwandan genocide in 1994 where over one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed over an eight-month period.
During the approximate 100-day period from April 7, 1994, to mid-July, an estimated 500 000–1 000 000 Rwandese were killed.
The Hutu established a propaganda radio station RTLM and a newspaper called Kangura that urged the extermination of the Tutsi’s whom they labelled cockroaches urging Hutus to “cut down the tall trees”.
Tutsis are generally lanky and taller than Hutus.
Analysts said the effect of Zwelithini’s statement was to dehumanise foreigners in the eyes of the killers so that they would not have any qualms in quashing vermin.
King Zwelithini said he was not afraid to tell foreigners to leave because he was not an elected politician.
“The time is now for us to have a say,” he said. “I would like to ask the South African government to help us. We must deal with our own lice. In our heads, let’s take out the ants and leave them in the sun. We are asking that immigrants must take their bags and go where they come from.”
King Zwelithini’s speech was followed by xenophobic attacks that have claimed five people, including one Zimbabwean in Durban as the situation remains tense for foreigners living in South Africa amid reports over 2000 have been displaced.
Analysts have warned that King Zwelithini’s remarks could lead to genocide as the attacks were no longer xenophobic, but simply targeted at fellow Africans, which made the Afrophobia.
King Zwelithini blamed the ills facing South Africa on foreigners.
“It is painful to me when I look at the country that our forefathers and thousands of people fought for become a criminal den,” he said
“There is nothing more painful to me; I don’t sleep thinking about these things. That what kind of people that God has placed me amongst us who do not listen?
“In 2015, we are talking about South Africans as people who don’t want to listen, who don’t want to work, who are thieves, who rape children, housebreakers, lazy people who don’t want to work the land. They are people when, if other nations look at them, will say let’s go and eat the inheritance of the stupid people.
“As I’m talking to you now, there are all sorts of things hanging outside the stores, they brought untidiness to our streets, its filthy, you can’t even see what these stores were (with) foreigners in these areas,” he said in statements that went viral and triggered attacks on foreigners in Durban, the capital of Kwazulu Natal Province.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini can be dragged before international tribunals over his utterances which invariably incited South Africans to unleash terror on foreign nationals in that country, Prosecutor-General Mr Johannes Tomana has said.
Mr Tomana said the victims of xenophobia, which has claimed five lives, including one Zimbabwean in recent days and left thousands displaced, could also sue the South African government for damages.
He was speaking in an interview after giving a lecture at the National Defence College on the need to balance the protection of human rights and national security.
“South Africa is guilty of breaching international law and unless they do something to address that violation they will stand condemned in front of all right thinking international citizens,” said Mr Tomana.
Mr Tomana said foreigners living in South Africa also enjoyed the protection of their rights in terms of the South African Constitution.
“Those rights that are protected are actually being violated,” he said. “It actually creates the basis for you to claim damages.”
Mr Tomana said the obtaining situation across the Limpopo placed an obligation on the South African government to take appropriate measures to stop xenophobic attacks.
“The South African government must account for the culprits and redress the injury that has been afflicted on those that have been victims of the barbaric behaviour,” he said.
Mr Tomana also urged governments from where the victims come from “to insist that justice must be done”.
The Zulu King now faces a charge of hate speech and violating human rights from Western Cape organiser of the SA National Defence Union.
Mr Tim Flack, famously booted out of a Parliament committee meeting in 2013 for wearing shorts, said he was spurred into action after watching complaints on Twitter that not enough was being done to stop xenophobic violence in South Africa by the country’s Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba.
He decided to go ahead and lay the charge online on the SA Human Rights Commission’s website, for allegedly inciting violence, and sedition.
He said the commission acknowledged his complaint, telling him it had been referred to its KwaZulu-Natal office.
The rights Flack alleges were violated by the king include the rights to dignity, security, life, movement and residence, contained in the Bill of Rights.
This followed reports of a speech he made in Pongola, KwaZulu- Natal, towards the end of March in which the king complained about crime and dirty streets.
SAHRC spokesperson Isaac Mangena could not immediately confirm Flack’s complaint, but said he had just returned from an SAHRC trip to KwaZulu-Natal, which included a visit to the king’s office for a similar complaint received a few weeks ago.
He would not say who had laid that complaint, nor the outcome of the meeting at the king’s office.
City Press reported that king said his words had been lost in translation and that he had been misquoted.
Mangena said SAHRC team had visited camps housing displaced people and lamented the poor conditions there, which included two children being taken to hospital by ambulance to be treated for diarrhoea.
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