Five people have been killed in a surge of xenophobic violence in South Africa, police said as President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to clamp down and the African Union, Nigeria and Zambia condemned the attacks.
a crowd armed with axes and machetes gathered in Johannesburg’s central business district for a third day of unrest directed against foreigners, hours after mobs burned and looted shops in the township of Alexandra, prompting police to fire rubber bullets to disperse them.
In a video address broadcast on Twitter, South African president, Ramaphosa said attacks on businesses run by Foreign Nationals is totally unacceptable, something that we cannot allow to happen in South Africa. The stated that the violence had “no justification.”
Sporadic violence against foreign-owned stores and enterprises has a long history in South Africa, where many locals blame immigrants for high unemployment.
He said the country is a major destination for economic migrants from neighboring Lesotho, Mozambique , Zimbabwe, South Asia and Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
