The African Diaspora Forum (ADF) says it has lodged an official complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against the mayor of Johannesburg‚ Herman Mashaba‚ over alleged hate speech and incitement of violence.

The organisation on Saturday accused Mashaba of being “the culprit” behind the recent spate of xenophobic violence in which immigrants mainly from other African countries have been targeted.

 “It happened in 2008‚ 2015 and now in 2017. We have witnessed the flames of xenophobia erupt in Gauteng province — that have been fuelled by the sweeping and reckless statements made by the current Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg Councillor Herman Mashaba that were repeatedly uttered in his 100 days of office speech‚” the forum said in a statement.

It added that it had met with Mashaba on February 28 “with the hope that he would agree to retract his generalised statements about migrants but so far he has refused to do so”.

 “During his various speeches directed at international immigrants‚ the first citizen of the City of Johannesburg put a special emphasis on undocumented immigrants who he accused of hijacking some buildings in the Johannesburg CBD which they littered and transformed into a jungle. When the South African masses saw the Executive Mayor wearing the Metro Police gear and acting as an immigration officer checking the validity of permits of immigrants in a bid to find undocumented migrants in the streets of Rosettenville‚ this act served as an impetus for the people at the local grassroots to attack immigrants from other African countries residing in Rosettenville‚” the forum claimed.

 It charged that more than 30 houses were set ablaze in Rosettenville and Pretoria West as “the local people embarked on a spree of destruction that saw houses being burnt‚ shops owned by migrants looted and even injuries meted out on some migrants”.

The organisation added that migrants who chose South Africa as their second home encountered the baleful threat of xenophobia on a daily basis in the streets and in both public and private-owned institutions.

 “The discriminatory behaviour that is unleashed against the migrant communities living and working in South Africa has reached unacceptable levels. The hardships that migrants face in communities could have been avoided if the authorities had taken proactive action by rolling out programmes aimed at educating South African citizens on the positive input that migrants offer to the Republic of South Africa rather than focusing on the negative innuendo and the baseless accusations about migrants‚” the forum said.

“The Africa Diaspora Forum is inviting all political parties to make official public statements regarding their stance or position about the xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals. The ADF has good reason to suspect that there are some political parties that are manipulating their members to attack international migrants‚” it added.