JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South Africa made its first public apology Friday for anti-immigrant violence that has left more than 40 dead and 17,000 displaced, as unrest spread to seven of the country's nine provinces.
"We are very much concerned and apologise for all the inconveniences that the incidents have caused," Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said during a trip to Nigeria.
Although violence in the hotspot of Johannesburg appeared to have been contained by police and the army, police reported attacks on foreigners for the first time in the coastal city of Cape Town and elsewhere.
As new outbreaks emerged African Union (AU) heads of state meeting in Tanzania "expressed shock" at the violence, which revised estimates by the UN refugee agency showed had displaced 17,000 people.
"What is happening now in South Africa at a time when we are trying to unite the continent is really an anti-climax," AU chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said.
The xenophobic violence hit Cape Town when a public meeting to address the danger of xenophobia in the Du Noon slum area north of the coastal city degenerated into violence on Thursday evening.
"Groups within the crowd started to loot shops owned by Zimbabweans and other foreigners," Cape Town police spokesman Billy Jones said, adding 500 people fled to the safety of community centres and 15 suspects had been arrested.
Police also reported pockets of overnight unrest in Durban in the KwaZulu Natal region, where an unidentified foreigner was shot, and in North West province where two Pakistanis were stabbed.
Northernmost Limpopo province also saw problems for the first time overnight when a Mozambican man was stabbed and 11 people were arrested, local police told AFP.
Anti-foreigner violence has now been reported in seven of the country's nine provinces, with only the Eastern and Northern Cape unaffected.
In Johannesburg, the situation appeared to have been brought under control by police bolstered by specialist units trained in public order and the army.
"It's quiet," police spokesman for the Johannesburg area Govindsamy Mariemuthoo told AFP.
Police and prosecutors said they were boosting operations to deal with the attacks and hoped to set up a dedicated court to deal with large-scale arrests.
In a joint statement, police and the National Prosecuting Authorities announced they wanted "to arrange for dedicated courts to be allocated per division, to ensure that these cases do not become part of the normal case load and are given priority."
Soldiers were deployed on Johannesburg's streets for the first time on Thursday to help stem the tide of violence that has seen mobs of armed youths attack foreigners in poor areas around the city.
Foreigners in South Africa, many of whom have fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, are being blamed for sky-high crime rates and depriving locals of jobs.
"We reject the notion that some of the people who are living in South Africa who are not South Africans can be blamed for the problems that we have," Mlambo-Ngcuka said in Nigeria.
Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils admitted the government had been aware of the threat of anti-immigrant sentiment but had been taken by surprise by the veracity of the attacks.
"Of course we were aware there was something brewing. It is one thing to know there is a social problem and another thing to know when that outburst will occur," he told SABC state radio.
The violence, which has done untold damage to South African's reputation as the "Rainbow Nation," is also taking its toll on the country's economy.
Unions and several mining companies have reported that gold mines around Johannesburg, the country's economic heartland, have been hit by the unrest, with employees failing to show up for work.
Also Friday, South Africa's World Cup-winning Springbok rugby team condemned the attacks and asked South Africans to "rediscover the spirit of reconciliation" that prevailed at the end of apartheid in 1994.
The plea came as countries around South Africa announced efforts to repatriate their citizens who have been caught up in the violence.
The governments of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe said they would assist citizens who wanted to return home.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
