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ANGUISH: Zimbabwean Stellai Shonhiwa and her son, Sarudzai, are camping out on a field along with about 3000 other foreign nationals after they were evacuated from their shacks in De Doorns in 2009. PHOTO: GALLO IMAGES

 Anti-xenophobia drive 

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They will be crossing all South African borders connecting the country with other African states, exchanging songs and dance.

"Xenophobia is a result of ignorance, lack of knowledge and understanding of other African countries. Xenophobia is not only an inhumane thing that we as South Africans carry, but it has a crippling effect on our own success," Africa Praise and Prays 12-12-12 ambassador Mbali Mngomezulu said.

In May 2008 a series of riots left 62 people dead, 21 of whom were South Africans. The attacks were apparently motivated by xenophobia.

Mngomezulu says the widely publicised challenges experienced at South Africa's border are beyond politics or racism, but are, in fact, in the mind.

"The borders are not just a physical literal separation, but are a metaphorical separation in our minds and the evidence is at the border posts," she said.

"On July 7 we crossed over the border between South Africa and Swaziland. We found that the hostility at the border is what inevitably leads to xenophobia as we, Africans, have been made to think we are different from each other when we are just the same.

"We share the same continent and the only diversity is our language," she said.

Mngomezulu said police in Swaziland refused them permission to enter the country with a South African flag without a permit.

They plan to cross to Lesotho and Zimbabwe soon.

According to a 1998 Human Rights Watch report, immigrants from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique living in Alexander township norht of Johannesburg were "physically assaulted over several weeks, as armed gangs identified suspected, undocumented migrants and marched them to the police station in an attempt to "clean" the township.

"A Mozambican and two Senegalese were thrown out of a train. The assault was carried out by a group returning from a rally that blamed foreigners for unemployment, crime and spreading Aids."

In 2000 seven foreigners were killed on the Cape Flats over five weeks in what police described as xenophobic murders possibly motivated by the fear that outsiders would claim locals' property.

In August 2006 Somali refugees appealed for protection after 21 traders were killed in July of that year and 26 more in August.

Mngomezulu said though the 2010 Football World Cup brought the continent together, it was worrying that xenophobia continued to rear its ugly head.

Comments

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Sun May 26 08:21:05 SAST 2013 ::

Jul 13, 2012

RobinH

A wonderful initiative. Go for it! And good luck to you.
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Jul 13, 2012

hulas

I cant believe this! This coming from kwa zombie natal unbelievable.The nzulas are the most x()enophobic and tribalist people in our country.
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Jul 13, 2012

ngutha

I do not understand why do we South Africans should be nice to these so called foreigners. I DO understand that our STRUGGLE heroes went to their countries in EXILE during apartheid, but our heroes never went in millions. They went in couple of hundreds and thousand. Now, these guys come here in millions and millions. There is an estimate of +/- 2 million Zimbabweans illegally living in SA.

As much as our struggle heroes received help and assistant in apartheid days, this does not mean we owe foreigners free accommodation in SA. These youngsters from KZN should stop selling SA out. We do not need another million foreigners. We already have enough domestic problems. Bringing another million foreigners will add another million problems which we do not need at this time and moment.
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Jul 13, 2012

RobinH

Ngutha: So much for christian charity and being kind to others, eh! Wait till you are in need one day.

hulas: And your little outburst isn't tribalist> The log is in your own eye, Sir.
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Jul 13, 2012

lindsay

and i thought they were physical fighting among themselves. didn't their king insulted foreigners anyway.

@hulas

and here i was thinking Sothos were the most tribalistic in the country
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Jul 13, 2012

MommaC

So much for the 'Africa for Africans' argument.

The problem is not the 'refugees' that come in - it is the calibre of the average that come in. If a guy has crawled under a fence, has no documents and no ties then his ONLY chance of survival is crime. Likewise, the influx of crime syndicate members who seem to get a freee pass from our police. Unfortunately, all the migrants then get painted with the same smelly brush.

After 2008 our government did their usual trick of 'ignore it long enough and it will go away'. It won't.
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Jul 13, 2012

KarlZimbiri

There is no need for these KZN youth to go to Swaziland, already there is a strong bond between KZN and Swaziland, which is so strong such that Zulu Kings take wives from Swaziland, e.g Zwelithini’s third wife and her 2nd latest wife are from Swaziland. The bond is even more than the bond between KZN & EC. A person from Swaziland will be more welcomed in KZN than a person from Limpopo.
Botswana & Lesotho, they are also not treated like foreigners in SA.
These youth were supposed to take the bull by the horns and interact with youth from: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Congo etc, because these are the people who on daily basis face hostile attitudes of South Africans.

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Jul 13, 2012

Makgorometja

@Ngutha,u said it all bro.I live in township,almost every lady from outside from the age of 14yrs have kids.Which means in 20yrs time we will be ruled by either Moosa or Idontknow/Promise/Goodenough in this country.This youth are trying to say u can come here Africa is for us all attitude.We cant really have everybody coming here.We understand we got to HELP,but its too much.The government does not help either soon people 's frustration will show
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Jul 13, 2012

Impela

KarlZimbiri
These youth were supposed to take the bull by the horns
==============================================================
Eish!! Zulus can't win. Remember the outcry when they did take the bull by the horns? Lol.
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Jul 13, 2012

wesbuw22

Okay
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