South African President Jacob Zuma has condemned the xenophobic attacks on foreigners, in which not less than five people have died since it started.
President Zuma described the attack as “shocking and unacceptable”.
No fewer than 5,000 people involved in a rally, held in the country’s coastal city of Durban Thursday, against the foreigners.
The attacks which was attributed to high rate of joblessness among South Africans who accused foreigners of taking their jobs was blamed on the Zulu king.
President Zuma told parliament Thursday that no amount of frustration or anger could justify the attacks on foreign nationals and the looting of their shops and called for calm to be restored to the areas most affected by violence.
Protesters led by the city Mayor and the Premier of KwaZulu Natal province, marched through Durban, chanting “Down with xenophobia” and “A United Africa”.
However, Marcher Vanessa Govender indicated the protest was ”just a mammoth show of support for all those foreigners who have fallen victim in the past two weeks of xenophobic violence.”
In the same vein, anti-immigrant assemblies were reported in both Durban and Johannesburg on Thursday. They were later dispersed by the Police.
The attack had reportedly spread to other parts of the country, including the SA economic capital, Johannesburg.
However, Nigeria through repeated posts by her Minister of Foreign Affairs II, Musiliu Obanikoro (on his Facebook account) has denied that no Nigerian had fallen victim of the attacks.
