Mzee Mwanakijiji
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- Mar 10, 2006
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Daily News
AT least 75 Tanzanians living in South Africa have reported to the Jeppe and other police stations in Johannesburg to avoid assaults and killings that erupted in that country last week.
The Acting Tanzania High Commissioner to South Africa, Mr Felix Mwijarubi, said yesterday that 10 Tanzanians had so far sustained minor injuries following the attacks.
Mr Mwijarubi said he had just paid a visit to the Jeppe Street police station in downtown Johannesburg. At Jeppe, the immigrants who had congregated there were supplied with tents, food and other makeshift shelters, now most needed because of the winter which is just setting in.
Most of the humanitarian assistance has been supplied by the South African Red Cross and other NGOs.
Mr Mwijarubi also visited Alexandra and Soweto police stations, where no Tanzanians had sought refuge, he said. He flew to Cape Town last night on a similar mission.
Most of the Tanzanians the envoy found at Jeppe station were illegal immigrants, with neither visas nor work permits. He said most of them expressed the desire to return home fearing further assaults from the locals there. He was due to file a report to the government in Dar es Salaam to enable further steps to be taken.
However,Tanzanian expatriates living in South Africa had not been affected by the violence, and none of them had expressed wishes to leave South Africa, he said. He added that most of them worked and lived under very secure environments, and that there had been no complaints so far.
Durban and Cape Town are among the cities hardest hit by the violence; they are also home to huge numbers of Tanzanian immigrants but Mr Mwijarubi could not give exact details.
On the situation now, the envoy expressed hope for some let-up in hostilities, saying South African government had already deployed the army to beef up security after angry mobs overwhelmed the police force. The South African government has already started strengthening security to bring the situation to normal, he said
Meanwhile, Xenophobic assaults and killings in South Africa targeting African foreigners have been termed as unfortunate by many Tanzanians, many of them expressing fears that they could later ignite ethnic killings among the South Africans themselves.
Mwesiga Baregu, Professor of International Relations at the University of Dar es Salaam, said yesterday during a random survey by the 'Daily News' that it was unfortunate that this was happening at a time the African Union was meeting in Arusha to revive the idea of a unified and transformed Africa.
He described the situation as that of a frustrated people whose government had failed to deliver economic prosperity it had pledged during the liberation struggle.
He further accused the government of wholesome adoption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programmes which could not deliver the promised manna and salwa.
Prof. Baregu said that it was likely that South African investments abroad could also be jeopardized, arguing that the challenge was for South Africa to take action and arrest the situation before it gets out of hand.
It is obvious that after all foreigners leave, they are likely to start turning on each other, he remarked. An economist who requested anonymity said that some economic reforms that were delayed in South Africa in the interest of the whites were likely to have instigated these killings in order to overshadow their manipulation in delaying the reforms.
He also said that the whites were creating some artificial hostility targeting other African countries to divert attention on real issues of land and economic reforms which have a direct impact on their investments. He said the fact that people are picking their targets based on ethnic groupings could spell intensified ethnic violence.
A former senior Editor with Tanzania Standard Newspapers, Mr Reginald Mhango, said that xenophobia was worse in South Africa but it was mild in other regions in Southern Africa.
It is unfortunate that such violence is targeting people who are not even exploiting their resources these are mere hand-to-mouth labourers, he said, adding that it was a wrong perception by some sections of South Africans that the foreigners were taking away their jobs.
He ruled out suggestions that a country like Tanzania could seek retaliation, saying : "We are mature and cannot kill anyone on any grounds whatsoever.
A senior journalist who worked for several years in South Africa attributed xenophobia currently taking place in South Africa to the aftermath of apartheid in which its people were subjected to discrimination for decades.
AT least 75 Tanzanians living in South Africa have reported to the Jeppe and other police stations in Johannesburg to avoid assaults and killings that erupted in that country last week.
The Acting Tanzania High Commissioner to South Africa, Mr Felix Mwijarubi, said yesterday that 10 Tanzanians had so far sustained minor injuries following the attacks.
Mr Mwijarubi said he had just paid a visit to the Jeppe Street police station in downtown Johannesburg. At Jeppe, the immigrants who had congregated there were supplied with tents, food and other makeshift shelters, now most needed because of the winter which is just setting in.
Most of the humanitarian assistance has been supplied by the South African Red Cross and other NGOs.
Mr Mwijarubi also visited Alexandra and Soweto police stations, where no Tanzanians had sought refuge, he said. He flew to Cape Town last night on a similar mission.
Most of the Tanzanians the envoy found at Jeppe station were illegal immigrants, with neither visas nor work permits. He said most of them expressed the desire to return home fearing further assaults from the locals there. He was due to file a report to the government in Dar es Salaam to enable further steps to be taken.
However,Tanzanian expatriates living in South Africa had not been affected by the violence, and none of them had expressed wishes to leave South Africa, he said. He added that most of them worked and lived under very secure environments, and that there had been no complaints so far.
Durban and Cape Town are among the cities hardest hit by the violence; they are also home to huge numbers of Tanzanian immigrants but Mr Mwijarubi could not give exact details.
On the situation now, the envoy expressed hope for some let-up in hostilities, saying South African government had already deployed the army to beef up security after angry mobs overwhelmed the police force. The South African government has already started strengthening security to bring the situation to normal, he said
Meanwhile, Xenophobic assaults and killings in South Africa targeting African foreigners have been termed as unfortunate by many Tanzanians, many of them expressing fears that they could later ignite ethnic killings among the South Africans themselves.
Mwesiga Baregu, Professor of International Relations at the University of Dar es Salaam, said yesterday during a random survey by the 'Daily News' that it was unfortunate that this was happening at a time the African Union was meeting in Arusha to revive the idea of a unified and transformed Africa.
He described the situation as that of a frustrated people whose government had failed to deliver economic prosperity it had pledged during the liberation struggle.
He further accused the government of wholesome adoption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programmes which could not deliver the promised manna and salwa.
Prof. Baregu said that it was likely that South African investments abroad could also be jeopardized, arguing that the challenge was for South Africa to take action and arrest the situation before it gets out of hand.
It is obvious that after all foreigners leave, they are likely to start turning on each other, he remarked. An economist who requested anonymity said that some economic reforms that were delayed in South Africa in the interest of the whites were likely to have instigated these killings in order to overshadow their manipulation in delaying the reforms.
He also said that the whites were creating some artificial hostility targeting other African countries to divert attention on real issues of land and economic reforms which have a direct impact on their investments. He said the fact that people are picking their targets based on ethnic groupings could spell intensified ethnic violence.
A former senior Editor with Tanzania Standard Newspapers, Mr Reginald Mhango, said that xenophobia was worse in South Africa but it was mild in other regions in Southern Africa.
It is unfortunate that such violence is targeting people who are not even exploiting their resources these are mere hand-to-mouth labourers, he said, adding that it was a wrong perception by some sections of South Africans that the foreigners were taking away their jobs.
He ruled out suggestions that a country like Tanzania could seek retaliation, saying : "We are mature and cannot kill anyone on any grounds whatsoever.
A senior journalist who worked for several years in South Africa attributed xenophobia currently taking place in South Africa to the aftermath of apartheid in which its people were subjected to discrimination for decades.
