JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Foreigners displaced by a recent wave of anti-immigrant violence in South Africa face entrenched hostility if they choose to return to their neighbourhoods, a research body said Monday.
"The factors that existed a month ago are still there," said Adrian Hadland, who coordinated the study by the independent Human Sciences Research Council, which interviewed South Africans in neighbourhoods affected.
"There is virtually a unanimity ... While they didn't like the violence, they don't want the foreigners to come back again."
Among South Africans who are poor and have difficulty finding a job and adequate housing "a general sentiment of siege exists", according to the researchers.
The researchers warned that government must engage with South Africans who feel alienated or the problem "will deepen and the possibility of successful reintegration ... will be diminished."
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, reacting to the findings, said there should be greater understanding in South Africa of the role others from the continent played in the country's anti-apartheid struggle.
"We took for granted that our people understand that Africa was part of our struggle ... It should be taught at school," he said.
The xenophobic attacks broke out last month, with mobs chasing people from their homes and looting immigrant-owned stores. Some victims were burned alive.
Much of the violence occurred in the Johannesburg area, where South Africans blame immigrants for high crime and for taking jobs.
However, at least 21 of the 62 people killed in the violence were South African, though officials have not provided an explanation for why they would have been targeted.
It was unclear whether any of them were South African citizens of foreign origin.
Many immigrants fled South Africa for their home countries, while others first took shelter in police stations and community centres. Some 30,000 are currently being housed in camps.
While South Africa is the continent's economic powerhouse, one-third of adults are unemployed and 43 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
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