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Down with xenophobia!One cannot be a criminal on the basis of being a foreigner, says Albert Lawrence after xenophobic attacks killed two Zimbabweans near his home.

Human Rights Day was tarnished this year in my area when local residents killed foreign nationals in the Atteridgeville West informal settlement near Tshwane.

This has painted a gloomy picture not only for the affected area but for the rest of the country as well.

The Simunye ANC branch members, Sanco members and Lotus Gardens community policing forum (CPF) held a meeting on April 6 to try and analyse what went wrong on that day.“Attacking foreigners was not part of our initial plan,” said Gregory Ledwaba, Sanco Atteridgeville West branch member.

He said that residents were unhappy about the proposed relocation of people living in Atteridgeville informal settlements to the North West province. Lotus Gardens residents also planned a march against high rents on that same day.

The protest was supposed to be directed at the Tshwane municipal offices. It is alleged that the informal settlement residents and the organizer of the march, Mr William Phala, who is involved at both Lotus Gardens as well as Atteridgeville West, were frustrated when their application for routes for marching was not granted.

Their frustration was then directed at foreigners. Foreigners have made inroads in our own business environment. It is alleged that the spaza shops as well as bottle stores of Atteridgeville West informal settlement are owned by foreigners.

In some cases they outnumber our own people.In the area where I live, the houses are built by foreigners. The women enter houses to look for any job – from domestic work to gardening. On the day of the march, the marchers instructed spaza shop owners to shut down their businesses.

They burned shacks belonging to foreigners. Two people died as a result of the attack. South Africans were also mistaken as foreigners and attacked. The April 6 meeting resolved that the Lotus Gardens community policing forum must join the Home affairs officials and search the area for more foreigners.

The meeting said they must be deported back to their countries since the area is crime infested. Residents in most informal settlements around South Africa are militant but their militancy can be harmful to themselves if not well co-coordinated.

The crime in my area is not acceptable. But one cannot be a criminal on the basis of being a foreigner. Criminals are those who commit crimes, they are arrested, tried and found guilty.

Killing of a fellow human being is a crime and has to be dealt with through the existing law of the South African criminal justice system.The Correctional Services department statistics show that the majority of those who are convicted are South African citizens.

Cosatu condemns xenophobic attacksMeanwhile Cosatu has condemned these xenophobic attacks. “It sets worker against worker and the poor against the poor when we should be uniting our class in our common struggle for liberation and a better life, against those who exploit us,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.

Cosatu's 7th Congress resolved that the solutions to the problem of xenophobia were for this country to:* develop “the skills capacity of all the marginalised and the poor, create new jobs, roll out essential services, health and education, and bring the poor, both South African and non-South African into the mainstream of economic and social participation.”

* assist our neighbouring countries to solve their economic problems, so that their people no longer need to look for an escape route out of poverty.” * campaign to reform world trade “so that it no longer benefits the rich and powerful developed world at the expense of the poor developing nations.”

Phansi ngokuzonda abantu abavela emazweni angaphandle!Umuntu angeke abe yisigebengu ngokuthi uvela ezweni elingaphandle, kusho u-Albert Lawrence emva kokuhlaselwa ngenzondo kwabantu abavela emazweni angaphandle kwabulawa abantu ababili baseZimbabwe endaweni ahlala kuyo eTshwane. Ingqungquthela Kazwelonke yesi-7 yeCosatu ikhuthaza leli zwe ukuthi lenze imisebenzi, liqalise izinsizakalo ezibalulekile, leseke iminotho yamazwe angomakhelwane futhi liguqule uhwebo lomhlaba ukuze abantu basemazweni angaphandle bengezukuza kuleli zwe bebalekela indlala.

Weg met xenofobie!Iemand kan nie ‘n misdadiger wees net omdat hy of sy ‘n buitelander is nie, sê Albert Lawrence na xenofobiese aanvalle waarin twee Zimbabwiërs in sy woonbuurt in Tshwane dood is.Daar is by Cosatu se 7de Nasionale Kongres ‘n beroep op hierdie land gedoen om werk te skep, noodsaaklike dienste uit te brei, die ekonomieë van naburige lande te ondersteun en die wêreldhandel sodanig te hervorm dat buitelanders nie na hierdie land hoef te kom om van armoede af weg te vlug nie.

Ha re qeteng lehloyo la matswantle!Motho a ke ke a ba setlokotsebe hobane feela e le moditjhaba, ho rialo Albert Lawrence ka mora diphutuhelo tsa lehloyo la matswantle moo ho ileng ha bolawa batho ba babedi ba Zimbabwe sebakeng sa habo sa bodulo se Tshwane.

Khonkrese ya Naha ya bo-7 ya Cosatu e ile ya etsa boipiletso naheng ena hore ho thehwe menyetla ya mesebetsi, ho tshehetswe moruo wa dinaha tsa boahisani mme ho fetolwe kgwebisano ya lefatshe ho etsetsa hore baditjhaba ba se ke ba bona tlhokeho ya ho tloha dinaheng tsa habo bona ba baleha bofuma.

Source

Numsa News