Nelson Mandela's lifelong friend and prominent human rights lawyer‚ advocate George Bizos‚ has said the attacks on foreigners was not triggered by xenophobia but deep hatred for foreigners.

He said late former president Mandela would have been ashamed by the violence against foreigners.

“We are dealing here with hatred for foreigners...I am pleased that the majority of people of SA‚ universities‚ human rights organisations and schools have stood up to put an end to this hatred of foreigners‚” he said.

He said it had never occurred to him that South Africans "could display such cruelty against their brothers and sisters".

Bizos was speaking in Pretoria on Thursday at the University of South Africa's debate on the state of ethics 20 years after the country's attainment of freedom and democracy.

He said he was pleased that it was only a few who committed crimes against foreigners‚ saying fellow Africans provided refuge for SA freedom fighters and supported the struggle against apartheid.

Bizos said people who stood against the attacks on foreigners did so at the great risk to their own personal safety‚ saying it is their ethical barometer that told them it was the right thing to do.

He said that‚ since his family came to SA from Greece as refugees‚ he knew how it felt to be a foreigner‚ away from family and friends and confronted by a language he could not speak.

“Fortunately we were welcomed with open arms‚” he said.

Over the past three weeks‚ South Africa has been struggling to contain xenophobic attacks that have claimed seven lives and which began in KwaZulu-Natal and spread to various parts of the country.

The government has since deployed the SA National Defence Force to help the police restore order and stem the spread of the attacks