Zambia’s High Commissioner in South Africa, Emmanuel Mwamba, says the attacks on foreign nationals living in South Africa are worrying.
Earlier on Monday, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, accompanied by Police Minister Bheki Cele, hosted an urgent meeting with African ambassadors in Pretoria to discuss the current spate of violence targeting foreign nationals and their properties.
At least 300 Malawians have been displaced in Durban, after foreign-owned shops were looted and robbed during violence which broke out last week. Mwamba says foreign nationals in the country live in fear.
“The occurrence in Durban is extremely worrying because of the repeat of xenophobic attacks especially the ones which occurred in 2008. We’ve seen some occurrence in 2015/16/17 although the matter could have occurred in Durban we hope that all stakeholders come together to ensure that attacks are not widespread and that foreigners do not live in fear and feel insecure in this country. The authorities in RSA have given us assurance,” says Mwamba
Sisulu says government is doing everything in its power to ensure that all people are safe.
“What happened over the weekend we believe the information available to us was pure criminality. However, today we went beyond the issue of criminality and we dealt with the matter that some ambassadors feel it is still xenophobic. The Constitution guarantees the safety of everybody and it is our responsibility to do that.”
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