Racist attacks in Johannesburg

The news of yet more xenophobic attacks and killings in Johannesburg is sad, but part of a familiar pattern . The only silver lining this cloud has is that the press both locally and internationally has at last picked up on the race riots.

Here is a Voice of America radio report. And that of the International Herald Tribune.



And so its should, this act is far worse than what happened at the Reitz hostel. In reaction to Xolela Mangcu's denial and attack on white racism who said recently:

"But right now, racism is not a black people’s problem, ridiculous charges of reverse racism notwithstanding."

I wrote this:

I spent a month in Yeoville recently and many black South Africans admitted brazenly - in a manner that would raise an eyebrow in a Ventersdop kroeg - that they were going to wipe out all the African foreigners there. We must just wait and see I was told.

Anybody in doubt about the seriousness should read this report. Or this one where one where Yvonne Ndlovu from Zimbabwe was taunted by four women to go home while blood was streaming from her face. A Malawian who had lived in Alexandra for 25 years was also beaten up. One Zimbabwean women was raped four times.

According to The Times, in an act resembling the passover, terrified South Africans have started to mark their shacks with South African names like, Madondo, Ndlovu, and Masinga.



Three persons are confirmed dead, and the chief executive at the Alexandra clinic, Abel Mangolele, said that between Sunday night and Monday morning alone 58 patients had been brought in with injuries sustained during the attacks.

He said an additional 56 were brought in on Monday and a further 39 were brought in for treatment between Monday night and Tuesday morning.



Last night I found the website of the Somali Association of South Africa, it cronicles the violence foreigners faced in South Africa.



The association claims that more than 100 Somalis have been killed in South Africa the last few years.



Cosatu and the SACP has come out strongly against these attacks. On its Allmostsupernatural, a South African Jewish site, these attacks are condemned. I hope that organisations representing other minorities (like Afrikaners) will do the same.

Pictures: News 24

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