JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Another foreigner has been killed in South Africa as a wave of xenophobic violence spreads across Johannesburg, bringing the weekend death toll to 13, police said on Monday.
"Last night (Sunday) was relatively quiet compared to previous nights. We had a few incidents, one murder was reported from Alexandra. The body was found with bullet wounds," police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo told AFP.
He said police from around the country's financial capital would meet on Monday to collate information from the weekend attacks in townships and the downtown area.
Some 250 people had been arrested during the attacks, including those committing offences such as looting which Mariemuthoo said were "pure criminal activities".
News of the latest killing comes as South African President, Thabo Mbeki, announced a panel had been set up to look into the xenophobic attacks and the South African Red Cross said it had launched a appeal to help displaced people.
Since the beginning of last week, foreigners have been targeted by mobs carrying machetes and guns in several run-down parts of the city despite pleas for calm and widespread condemnation from politicians.
The bulk of the immigrants who have flooded South Africa in recent years are from neighbouring Zimbabwe, with an estimated three million having fled the economic meltdown and political crisis in their country.
They have been particularly targeted as they are blamed by some locals for crime and unemployment. Some Zimbabweans say they are also accused of being behind rising food prices.
An AFP reporter saw armed police recover the dead body of a victim midafternoon in the notorious Hillbrow area of the inner city on Sunday. They fired dozens of rubber bullets to disperse gangs in the surrounding area.
As well as the panel to look into the violence, Thabo Mbeki urged the police to act firmly against the perpetrators, the domestic news agency SAPA reported.
"We hope that the panel and the police will work together and help us answer who is behind this," he was quoted as saying.
The head of the ruling African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, also condemned the violence.
"We cannot allow South Africa to be famous for xenophobia," Zuma said from Pretoria, SAPA reported. "We cannot be a xenophobic country."
He recalled the role neighbouring countries had played in sheltering ANC members in their fight against the racist apartheid regime in South Africa.
"We should be the last people to have this problem of having a negative attitude towards our brothers and sisters who come from outside," he said.
Eric Goemaere, coordinator for humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Johannesburg, said the violence had intensified on Sunday, with victims describing gangs of youths raiding their homes and looking for foreigners.
"The situation today is even more tense than during the week," he told AFP.
"They (victims) say there are organised gangs of 100 to 300 youths who are breaking into homes, apartments and shacks."
"The violence is quite extreme: one woman was thrown out of a first floor window and fell on a car. There is an intention to kill."
In another incident on Sunday, a church where about 1,000 Zimbabweans were taking refuge was attacked, according to Goemaere, as well as a police station that was providing shelter to foreigners.
The acting secretary general of the South African Red Cross, David Stephens, said the organisation had launched a campaign to help victims of the attacks who have been forced to flee.
"We have made an appeal to the public to assist us to help people who are destitute," he said.
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