{"id":2799,"date":"2022-02-19T00:24:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T00:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa"},"modified":"2022-02-19T18:40:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T18:40:58","slug":"go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa","title":{"rendered":"‘Go home’: Protests against foreigners resurface in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>They turned up in a mob of several hundred at a migrant centre in South Africa’s Soweto township — unemployed, wielding weapons and angry with foreigners they accuse of taking their jobs.<\/p>\n

“Foreigners, go home,” they cried, according to witnesses.<\/p>\n

With unemployment at 35 percent — and rising up to 65 percent among youth — competition for jobs has spawned resentment among some jobless South Africans.<\/p>\n

In the past, xenophobic protests have morphed into violence. Attacks against foreigners left at least 62 people dead in 2008, while another seven were killed in similar unrest in 2015.<\/p>\n

Armed mobs descended on foreign-owned businesses around the financial hub Johannesburg in 2019. The ensuing clashes left at least 12 people dead, of whom 10 were South African, according to the government.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, scores of protesters have been staging demonstrations against undocumented migrants in what they have dubbed Operation Dudula, Zulu for “drive back”.<\/p>\n

– ‘Stealing jobs’ –<\/b><\/p>\n

At the Methodist migrant community centre in Soweto, where about 100 migrant families live, there had been rumours of an attack.<\/p>\n

A horde arrived earlier this month — some wielding traditional Zulu leather whips — at the centre in South Africa’s most famous township, located south of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

“Foreign nationals are stealing jobs that belong to South Africans,” protesters said, according to witnesses.<\/p>\n

Sithulisiwe Chinora, a 22-year-old Zimbabwean, recounted how she started shaking violently, her infant wrapped on her back.<\/p>\n

“I thought I was going to die that day,” she said.<\/p>\n

Father Paul Verryn, who founded the centre, says it is clear who the protesters were.<\/p>\n

“They are xenophobic activists, they clearly targeted foreign nationals because they want them out,” said the minister, who is famous for having opened a church in Johannesburg to thousands of undocumented Zimbabweans after the first anti-immigration attacks.<\/p>\n

But the Operation Dudula movement says it is pacifist.<\/p>\n

Its leader Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini, a man in his thirties from Soweto who often dresses in a military uniform and bullet-proof vest, says he is simply seeking to “restore law and order”.<\/p>\n

“The law enforcement is failing us,” he has told reporters.<\/p>\n

– Foreign worker quota? –<\/b><\/p>\n

Last weekend, Dlamini led a protest outside a supermarket demanding the sacking of foreign workers employed there.<\/p>\n

“There is (nothing) xenophobic about that, it’s the law,” he told journalists. “Any job that doesn’t require skill in South Africa belongs to South Africans.”<\/p>\n

Around 3.9 million foreigners live in South Africa, a country of almost 60 million, including political refugees, according to official statistics.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch says foreigners are often made scapegoats in a country with one of the world’s most unequal societies.<\/p>\n

Jay Naidoo, a founding member of the Cosatu workers’ union, said anti-immigrant arguments did not hold up.<\/p>\n

“Even if they were to expel all the immigrants, our level of crime would not drop, neither our level of joblessness,” he said.<\/p>\n

So far, the latest demonstrations have not spiralled into violence.<\/p>\n

A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said law enforcement was keeping an eye on the demonstrations.<\/p>\n

But “the right to protest is enshrined in the country’s constitution and so far, they haven’t committed any action that required the police to enforce the law,” the source said.<\/p>\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday the authorities were closely watching “pockets of groupings that are trying to foment a type of negative attitudes” towards foreigners.<\/p>\n

At the start of the month, the government said it was working on a law to install a quota for foreign workers in South African companies.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. They turned up in a mob of several hundred at a migrant centre in South Africa’s Soweto township — unemployed, wielding weapons and angry with foreigners they accuse of taking their jobs. “Foreigners, go home,” they cried, according to witnesses. With unemployment at 35 percent — and rising up to 65 percent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234,560,559,561,562],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana","tag-discrimination","tag-migration","tag-safrica","tag-unemployment"],"yoast_head":"\n'Go home': Protests against foreigners resurface in South Africa - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They turned up in a mob of several hundred at a migrant centre in South Africa's Soweto township -- unemployed, wielding ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Go home': Protests against foreigners resurface in South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They turned up in a mob of several hundred at a migrant centre in South Africa's Soweto township -- unemployed, wielding ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-19T00:24:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-19T18:40:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/02\/img-6211392875ae1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"‘Go home’: Protests against foreigners resurface in South Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-19T00:24:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-19T18:40:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/02\/img-6211392875ae1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\",\"discrimination\",\"migration\",\"SAfrica\",\"unemployment\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/go-home-protests-against-foreigners-resurface-in-south-africa\",\"name\":\"'Go home': Protests against foreigners resurface in South Africa - 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