Non-government organisation, The Right2Know Campaign, on Monday blamed the recent attacks on foreigners in South Africa on the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa and traditional leaders.
In a statement made available to APA amid the continued looting and burning of foreign-owned shops in Gauteng Province, which hosts the capital Pretoria and the economic capital Johannesburg, the organisation blamed Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and Ramaphosa for their recent calls to “defend the sovereignty of the state.”
The Right2Know said the attacks on non-South Africans confirmed a dangerous emerging trend of “xenophobic populism” which has led to attacks on foreign nationals in the two main cities.
“We recognise that there are many sources of the violence but it is also clear that statements of outrage and condemnation by state officials at all levels (Cabinet, Parliament, the Gauteng Province, South African Police Service and Metropolitan cities) have fuelled the actions of ordinary citizens who have interpreted those statements to be licence to take the law into their own hands,” the organisation said.
It noted that political leaders “find an easy target in the vulnerable Africans seeking to make a new home in South Africa. Indeed, there is a dangerous emerging trend of xenophobic populism that leads to attacks on foreign nationals.”
“In 2015, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s speech, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2019 election campaign pronouncements, the Minister of Health’s comments on the strain placed on health services by foreign migrants, and the xenophobic blaming for Johannesburg’s problems by Mayor Herman Mashaba have been followed by xenophobic attacks in different localities.
“In all these instances, even when not responding to a direct call, political populism is used as justification by instigators and perpetrators who would have been waiting for an opportunity to strike for their own reasons,” the NGO said.
Foreign-owned shops have been looted, car dealerships torched, a metro police officer injured and one man shot dead during the chaos which has since spread to other parts of Johannesburg and throughout the Gauteng Province.
NM/jn/APA