A woman covered in soot gestures and shouts towards foreign nationals outside the Jeppies Hostles, in the Jeppestown area of Johannesburg, on April 17, 2015 after residents from the Jeppie Hostles, purportedly torched a passing vehicle in the early hours. PHOTO | AFP
Dar es Salaam. The government is assessing the condition of 15 Tanzanians trapped in xenophobic violence in KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa. A final decision was expected last night.
“A team of officers from our High Commission in South Africa are assessing the situation of the 15 Tanzanians living in KwaZulu Natal, which is mostly affected by the violence,” said the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Mr Bernard Membe. “We have given priority to those in KwaZulu Natal and we will make a decision later today (yesterday),” said Mr Membe.
The officers will establish whether they are employees or business people and also look into the risk they face. “If we establish that they are in real danger, we will evacuate them without delay,” said the country’s top diplomat.
Mr Membe cautioned, though, that some Tanzanians could exploit the situation to get back home on the back of the government. He added: “Xenophobia is selective. Not all people are subjected to violence. When they ask you where are you from and you tell them that you are a Tanzanian, they do not touch you.”
Tanzania played a big role in the fight against the oppressive apartheid regime and no Tanzanian has been killed. Earlier reports had indicated that two Tanzanians died in the violence but, according to the minister, it had been established that their death was not connected to the xenophobic violence.
The minister, who was on his way to Dar es Salaam from an official tour of Oman, said the government chose to evacuate over 60 of its nationals in Yemen first because that situation was worse than that in South Africa and swift action was necessary.
“It’s a war in Yemen and people were stranded along borders,” he explained, “but the situation in South Africa is a bit different. In the past 24 hours, we have evacuated 15 Tanzanians to Oman from the embattled Yemen and the evacuation is ongoing.”
The Tanzanian High Commission in Pretoria confirmed on Friday that there were plans to evacuate its citizens from the camps.
Acting High Commissioner Elibahati Ngoyai Lowassa said consular officials were dispatched on Friday to the camps around KwaZulu Natal Province, the epicentre of the chaos, to establish the number of Tanzanians. “So far, we have learnt that 15 Tanzanians have called for help and our team will establish the magnitude of the planned evacuation,” said Mr Lowassa.
The spokesman of Tanzanians in Durban, Mr Bonka Kuseleka, told The Citizen on Wednesday that two Tanzanians had been killed in hate attacks this week but Mr Lowassa said there was no evidence linking the deaths with the violence.
Tanzanians caught up in the violence in South Africa on Friday spoke of their shocking experience fleeing blood-thirsty mobs hellbent on attacking foreigners. Speaking at makeshift camps put up to shelter foreigners, they sent a distress call to the government.
Locals and African immigrants in South Africa often compete for scarce jobs, making the foreigners a target for violence and intimidation. Early this year, foreign shopkeepers in and around Soweto fled after violence and looting broke out. In 2008, 62 people were killed in similar violence in Johannesburg townships.
South Africa now stands accused of betraying its human rights ideals and African nations that aided it in the fight against apartheid. The violence is embarrassing for the ruling African National Congress, whose members took refuge in countries on the continent before white minority rule ended in 1994.
Official reports say at least six foreigners had been killed since the violence broke out early in the week. South African police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini reported that several suspects were arrested overnight as the anti-foreigner attacks spread to downtown Johannesburg.
CREDIT: THE CITIZEN
No comments:
Post a Comment