The South African Government is making efforts to contain the increasing xenophobic attacks that have led to the death of some foreigners in Kwazulu Natal province, a government official said.
In an interview with Channels Television on Friday, the South African High Commissioner in Nigeria, Lulu Mnguni, condemned the attacks on foreigners by locals, stressing that the policies of the government had never been anti-foreigners.
“It is not our government’s policy to say that people from other countries should be attacked. The government had made a clear statement that there is nothing that will justify the attack.
“We are working closely with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to try and make sure that the situation is normalised, as quickly and possible,” he said.
“Have Come A Long Way”
Mr Mnguni said that the crisis had been triggered by the level of poverty in the area and the drive by locals to have complete access to the resources alone.
“The problem of limited resources to cover the areas where this is taking place is in the root of the crisis.
“It happens in the area where there are poverty ridden people with limited resources.
“It is not the first time that these attacks are happening, but we have to look at a number of issues that could be at the base of these occurrences and try to correct them in a radical way.
“The Minister of State and the Minister in charge of security have been deployed to assist in containing the situation,” he said.
According to him, the government had started putting measures in place to bring an end to the xenophobic attacks.
He said talks are ongoing with community leaders, whom have been asked to talk to the people and assist in ensuring that the crisis is contained.
“We try to educate the people that we have come a long way with other African countries. We are trying to make sure that there are enough resources that can be shared.
“The minister of small business has been deployed to Kwazulu Natal to talk to the people and see how the situation could be fully addressed to make sure that we do not keep having a repeat of this,” the South African envoy said.
Relations threatened
South Africa’s relations with other African countries are being threatened, as the attacks have continued for days.
Mr Mnguni said the government had held more talks with the nations whose citizens have been attacked.
“We are sharing experiences with other countries about how these challenges can be contained.
“We are talking to our principals on a daily basis on the effect of the occurrences in our country and the effect it could have on our relations with other countries.
“President Jacob Zuma is also talking to all religious, traditional and communities leaders to try and assist in containing the situation.
“Whatever we do will complement the efforts of our President to bring the situation to normalcy.
“We appreciate the role played by Nigerian during our struggles.
“We value our relationship with other Africa countries. We are trying our best and we hope that we will work towards the normalisation of the situation.
“What is helping is that our Minister for foreign Affairs, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, is talking to the African countries affected by the attacks.
“He has met with Nigerian Minister for Foreign Affairs. We are talking to Nigeria from time to time through our principals,” he stated, expressing hopes that the relations would not be affected.
On measures that will further reduce the possibility of the attacks occurring again, Mr Mnguni said the South African government had, in the area of small business, asked the Minister of Trading to ensure that people doing business in the area would adopt proper conduct.
