Durban protests spiralling out of control?

[Dave A]

If you looting millions what do you care when your subjects are looting a six pack of coke and a bag of chips.

Whoever gets away with the looting is the one seen to be in control.

The stakes are - "Who's the boss?"

[IanF]

Now the "foreigners" are fighting back

Komatipoort - Xenophobic violence has broken out in Mozambique, forcing South Africans to leave the neighbouring country in a hurry, while trucks exporting goods have been grounded.

Truck driver John Mashiloane, who works for Ngululu Carriers told a News24 correspondent that he was forced to return to South Africa after the truck he was driving was stoned a short distance from the border town of Ressano Garcia.

"I’m back in South Africa, we have parked our trucks in Komatipoort. When we went into Mozambique in the morning, we saw that traffic was clear and thought it was fine, but just 4km into Mozambique near the Muamba Toll Gate, we found a mob of about 300 people in bakkies who started pelting our trucks with stones and telling us that we are killing their brothers and sisters so we deserve to die too," said Mashiloane

Full article

Now will the government step up and try get this under control?

[msmoorad]

firstly, the ones ultimately responsible are our ANC govt, who opened the borders & lifted restrictions, which has allowed millions of foreigners to enter the country.
what need was there for the govt to do this?
we have more than enough of our own problems, not to mention our already high crime rates.


its our govt & corrupt officials who have paved the way for so many foreigners to abuse our country.

why should we now attack these foreigners, when instead, we should direct our anger towards the govt?

these foreigners would never have been able to enter our country & if they did, they would never be able to engage in any criminal activity if our govt & our police etc were doing their jobs properly.

why vent our anger & frustration at those who are guilty of nothing more than taking advantage of the opportunity to build a better life for themselves & their families.
Instead, focus on our ANC govt who have not acted wisely and have allowed things to reach the current situation where we have too many foreigners here.


To KimH:
if we had to look at it that way, then even i am a foreigner.
im referring to those who entered SA after 1994, esp those without proper documents.

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[Blurock]

In November 2012 NAFCOC held their annual conference in East London. There were a number of speakers who called on delegates and black people to "take back their townships and not to let shops and buildings to foreigners". They were told to chase the foreigners out of their townships. In March 2015 the Zulu king made a similar statement in a speech to the Pongolo community;

[W]e talk of people [South Africans] who do not want to listen, who do not want to work, who are thieves, child rapists and house breakers…. When foreigners look at them, they will say let us exploit the nation of idiots. As I speak you find their unsightly goods hanging all over our shops, they dirty our streets. We cannot even recognise which shop is which, there are foreigners everywhere. I know it is hard for other politicians to challenge this because they are after their votes. Please forgive me but this is my responsibility, I must talk, I cannot wait for five years to say this. As King of the Zulu Nation… I will not keep quiet when our country is led by people who have no opinion. It is time to say something. I ask our government to help us to fix our own problems, help us find our own solutions. We ask foreign nationals to pack their belongings and go back to their countries (loud cheers).

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

The state budgets three times as much money for deporting people as it does for preventing illegal entry.

[IanF]

This is a terrible situation which the ANC government has been caught with their pants down.
JZ has so many scandals hanging over his head and he seems to be putting in "his" people in all the government departments and SOEs either for his family's gain or to protect himself.
This has left the government rudderless and the main mission to protect or enrich Zuma. Until this changes we have no hope.
I hope I am wrong with my analysis.

Anyway we can only try and enlighten the majority and hope they change either the government or the ANC leadership.

[wynn]

"Let it ride and they will not write about Nkandla, He He He!"

The press took their collective eye off the ball with the #Rhodes must fall and the Xenophobia reporting which must make a certain resident in the presidential palace very happy.

[ians]

I am still trying to figue out what all the fuss is about.

The murder rate in this country is around 35 people per day (please feel free to correct this figue). I dont think there have been that many foreigner nationals murdered since the attacks started, yet there is this huge public outcry, social media is a buzz with it.

My point is are there are people being attacked and murdered everyday in SA. People dont even worry about murders, attacks and gun battles, between police and criminals as in a incident I watched a while back. The driver of a truck warned me to stop, we all stood and watched and took a couple pics. Once it was all over we got back in our cars and carried on with our day as if nothing had happened. You watch people being attacked while stopped at robots, people take pics and post them on social media. You hear of horrific attacks in people homes, were people are burnt and tortured for hours, women are raped, you dont even get to hear about it in the news.

what so special about these foreigners nationals ?

[vieome]

Who do you class as a foreigner

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller

[Blurock]

I am still trying to figue out what all the fuss is about.

The murder rate in this country is around 35 people per day (please feel free to correct this figue). I dont think there have been that many foreigner nationals murdered since the attacks started, yet there is this huge public outcry, social media is a buzz with it.

My point is are there are people being attacked and murdered everyday in SA. People dont even worry about murders, attacks and gun battles, between police and criminals as in a incident I watched a while back. The driver of a truck warned me to stop, we all stood and watched and took a couple pics. Once it was all over we got back in our cars and carried on with our day as if nothing had happened. You watch people being attacked while stopped at robots, people take pics and post them on social media. You hear of horrific attacks in people homes, were people are burnt and tortured for hours, women are raped, you dont even get to hear about it in the news.

what so special about these foreigners nationals ?

Any murder is despicable and cannot be condoned. However, when politicians and self-appointed leaders instigate racial hatred and systematic "cleansing of townships" it is even more despicable. Read Viome's post and the quote from Martin Niemöller.

I would have thought that we have learnt from apartheid and the history of our country. Unfortunately the current government is practicing a more severe form of apartheid than the Nats.

[vieome]

Apart from the fact that the attacks have resulted in the loss of life, we now have a refugee crisis. With everything being connected, we see the rand value has drop by over 20cents since the start of the attacks. Lower rand can mean higher fuel prices, which can result in rise in inflation, and more power cuts.
So one might think they are not affected by this, but you soon will feel the effects.

[Blurock]

Comments by Max duPreez

Zwelithini should face the consequences

2015-04-21 07:17
Max du Preez

Fewer than two out of 10 South Africans see King Goodwill Zwelithini as their king. And yet we taxpayers pay him about R60m per year to keep his bloated household going and he behaves as if he really is the national monarch who is above the law and our constitution.

South Africans should not simply sweep Zwelithini’s reckless statements on foreign nationals, the most obvious trigger of the latest wave of xenophobic attacks, under the carpet. Any influential public figure guilty of such provocative, irresponsible utterances should be forced to face the consequences of his actions.

Traditional leaders obviously still have a role in South Africa. About a third of its citizens still live in traditional communal areas and especially older folk still respect the chiefs and their structures. It is part of who we are as a nation and all of us should respect that.

The natural process would have been for this traditional culture to gradually weaken and evolve as urbanisation increases and communities modernise. But it is increasingly clear that the ANC is trying to stunt this development to make up for the support it is losing in the urban areas. Recent statements by President Jacob Zuma and legislation that give traditional leaders more powers are indications of this strategy.

Zwelithini treated differently

Zwelithini is treated very differently from other kings and chiefs. The Tembu, the Xhosa, the Mpondo and the Pedi also have kings, but they are only paid about R1m a year. There are more than 800 senior traditional leaders and more than five thousand chiefs in the country who get much smaller salaries from the state.

Zwelithini has allowed himself to be used as a political pawn for decades, first by Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Inkatha during the bloody conflict with the UDF and ANC and when Buthelezi tried to sabotage the Codesa talks, and more recently by the ANC.

He was an essential element in Zuma’s efforts after 1994 to establish Zulu-speakers as his primary constituency and to use them as a political tool.

In the process Zwelithini lost a lot of his prestige, but many Zulu-speakers still see him as umlom’ ongathethi manga, the mouth that speaks no lies. He still plays an important role in the political life of KwaZulu-Natal and controls a third of the land in the province.

Zwelithini is an unashamed old-style patriarch with six wives and, when I counted last, 28 children. Three years ago he publicly labelled homosexuality as wrong and “rotten” – and afterwards claimed that he was quoted out of context. Sexual orientation is a freedom guaranteed by our Constitution.

Four weeks ago Zwelithini told a cheering gathering in Pongola: “We ask that those who come from outside our country to pack up their belongings and go back to where they came from.” The transcript of his speech was translated carefully by several Zulu linguists.

Renewed xenophobic attacks

Three days later the Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe predicted that the king’s statements would lead to renewed xenophobic attacks on Zimbabwean citizens. Zanu-PF politician Jonathan Moyo tweeted: “Just heard audio of King Zwelithini's xenophobic statement as recorded by Gagagsi FM. It’s a crime against humanity Rwanda style!”

Not long afterwards the first attacks on foreign nationals started in Durban and then Johannesburg hostel dwellers joined in.

Government leaders and ANC politicians, even the EFF’s Julius Malema, accepted Zwelithini’s claim that he was again quoted out of context. This is obviously nonsense, as the transcripts of his speech proved. He indeed also talked about South Africans being lazy and advised them to work and till the land, but his attitude towards non-citizens was crystal clear.

“I won’t keep quiet when people who have no say are playing with this country. It is now time for us to have a say,” he said. He added: “We must deal with our own lice. In our heads let’s take out the ants and leave them in the sun.” (It is unclear what he meant by that.) He said foreigners were all over South Africa and they were making the streets dirty. A clear message, no context needed.

I have listened to several radio and television interviews and read remarks by several people involved in the xenophobic attacks who say that they believe they were acting on the orders of the Zulu king.

The king waited until yesterday, after the xenophobic attacks had subsided, to hold a so-called peace imbizo on the topic of xenophobia.

His speech at the imbizo reminded me very much of those of the former apartheid government ministers before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: admitting that something wrong had happened, but denying all knowledge or culpability and instead blaming the media and other forces. He never gave orders for attacks, the king said, parroting the apartheid leaders. They merely called for anti-apartheid activists to be “taken out”, they said; the king merely referred to lice and asked foreigners to pack up and go home.

Zwelithini not above the law

Chillingly, Zwelithini said at the imbizo that if he had told his impi to attack people, the country would have been reduced to ashes. It sounds like something Magnus Malan could have said.

The king’s subjects attending the imbizo clearly got the subtext. They booed all non-Zulu that were introduced and continued to sing songs asking foreigners to leave.

It is high time the king of the Zulu is put in his place. He is not above the law or the constitution. He behaves as if he is the South African equivalent of Swaziland’s Mswati III.

A good way to start would be to close the tap of taxpayers’ money going to the royal palaces in Nongoma and to force the king and his extended family to live more humbly.

- Follow Max on Twitter.

Disclaimer:

News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.

We are all accountable for what we do and say. Every action has a reaction. Every deed has a consequence.

[ians]

I hear these attacks have been on the cards for a while already, right down to the question they are asked to identify foreign nation or not.

I believe there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we know.

There is always a positive side to everything, you can be a hero by getting out there and assisting with food, clothing and supplies. If you really brave invite a group to come stay in your back yard.

How many people on this forum have foreigners living in your back yard or outbuilding?

[Blurock]

I hear these attacks have been on the cards for a while already, right down to the question they are asked to identify foreign nation or not.

I believe there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we know.

Correct. I have heard it first hand as far back as Nov 2012. (See post 19)