XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS

Let me begin with an issue that has in the last few days dominated local and international media - attacks against foreigners and South African nationals in South Africa.

We are very concerned that that violence continues and that new outbreaks of violence are occurring.

The South African government condemns the unprovoked attacks by elements within our society on vulnerable foreign nationals.

It is our view that at this very difficult and challenging time, we avoid sensationalism. It is the role of the media to investigate more deeply growing reports of the involvement of criminal and other elements in instigating and provoking these attacks, largely against foreigners. Journalists have a very important role not just to report elements of this phenomenon but to try to contextualise why this phenomenon has hit South Africa so seriously in the last few days. I also believe that it is the time to avoid politicking and politicising this situation.

As you know, yesterday the Secretary-General of the ANC met with the Secretary-General of the IFP to see how we can collectively work towards ending this violence and it is important for other political parties to stop making generalised comments and join the national effort to deal with this phenomenon.

It is also important to deal with, what I believe, is unsubstantiated criticisms of either the police or the government generally in dealing with this. I believe it is a matter of record that the police, and reservists, in very difficult circumstances have attempted to do their best in dealing with what has been a totally unexpected phenomenon in our country.

It is our view that most of the foreigners amongst us have sought refuge and safety in our midst due to a variety of social, political and economic factors which forced them to relocate to South Africa. It is therefore incorrect for us to shut the door on them, seek to ostracise them, intimidate them or ask them to return to their countries.

Our responsibility and indeed moral obligation as a Government and people is to extend our hospitality to them as they did when thousands of our people fled into exile during our struggle for liberation. We must remember that had it not been for the enormous support that we, as South Africans, received in African countries in the bleak years of Apartheid, we may not have achieved the Democratic Revolution.

Many innocent fellow Africans, particularly in the Frontline States paid with their lives to protect and shelter our people, yet all they ask of us is to allow them to be treated in a humane and dignified manner. We cannot forget that the then Apartheid government carried out massive destabilisation campaigns precisely because they gave support to the South Africa democratic struggle. We must never forget this message to be forgotten.

We call on our law-abiding citizens to cooperate with the authorities to bring this shameful behaviour to an immediate end, especially as we celebrate Africa Day this coming weekend which is an appreciation of our African heritage, identity, culture, resilience and pride in our diversity.

Let us not overlook the disturbing fact that sinister forces appear to have a hand in the escalation and spread of this repulsive behaviour which has regrettably led to the loss of innocent lives, both of foreigners and South Africans.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Government as a whole expresses its regret at the events of the past two weeks in this regard and calls upon all political parties and people, civil society and faith-based organisations to intensify efforts to restore calm and peace and allow the reintegration of all affected people into the respective societies that they have come to call home and family.

Let us not allow a handful to erode our kindness, compassion and spirit of Ubuntu.

ZIMBABWE

The presidential results and run-off
Mr Morgan Tsvangirai announced on 10 May that he will contest the presidential run-off and will return to Zimbabwe to start campaigning once his personal safety has been guaranteed. Tsvangirai further put conditions on his participation in the run-off including presence of international observers, reconstruction of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and SADC peacekeepers. In response, Justice Minister Chinamasa has stated that Western observers will not be allowed to monitor the run-off unless Western countries first lift sanctions against Zimbabwe. He further said only observers from the countries that were invited for 29 March elections would be invited. These included observers from African countries and organisations; Asian countries, Latin American countries, Middle East and Russia.

On 16 May, ZEC announced that the presidential run-off will be conducted on 27 June 2008. The presidential run-off will be held concurrently with the three by-elections (Pelandaba-Mpopoma; Gwanda South and Redcliff constituencies) where some candidates died before the 29 March harmonised elections.

The ZEC has said that it needs US$ 60 million from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for its preparations for the run-off round.

MDC-Tsvangirai announced on Saturday, 17 May that Mr Tsvangirai would not return to Zimbabwe on Sunday, 18 May as originally planned due to security concerns. MDC claims to have unearthed a plot to assassinate Mr Tsvangirai.

Following the announcement of the run-off, it is now expected that the relevant Zimbabwean authorities will issue invitations for observation of the run-off. SADC is expected to send observers again after receiving an invitation from Zimbabwe. South Africa, as it did during the 29 March elections, will contribute to the SADC Election Observer Mission.

Reports of violence and intimidation in the post-election period
There have been reports of politically motivated violence. Each party blames the other side for initiating this violence. The violence has apparently resulted in the destruction of homes, alleged killings and creation of internal refugees. There is a danger that a cycle of violence and counter violence could upset the substantial progress that was made prior the 29 March which allowed the election to take place in a generally peaceful, calm and orderly manner, something which both sides have acknowledged.

To verify the claims of violence, President Mbeki, acting in his capacity as Facilitator of the Zimbabwe dialogue, has sent retired generals to investigate allegations of violence. The team was deployed on 4 May and is expected to complete its fact-finding mission by 20 May, following which it will present a report to the President.
The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Zimbabwe has said that it has been receiving an increasing number of reports and requests for humanitarian assistance to people affected by violence.

Socio-economic developments
We do believe it is important to find a political solution because the economic decline of Zimbabwe continues unabated. Education, healthcare and other basic services are deteriorating. Rampant hyper-inflation is having a serious impact on the quality of life of ordinary Zimbabweans. The annual inflation rate has reached 165,000%.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) issued a 500 million Zimbabwe Dollar note on 16 May (worth about USD2) to ease ongoing cash shortages. The previous highest denomination note was ZWD250 million, issued less than 2 weeks before that.

The maize harvest this season should alleviate the need for food aid distributions and the importation of maize. Although the 2008 harvest might be lower than official estimates due to insufficient inputs - in particular fertiliser - and floods, the World Food Programme (WFP) has stated that it is too early to say whether there would be a need for the body to scale up its operations later in the year. About 300,000 Zimbabweans received food aid from the WFP in the month of April, compared to 2.4 million in previous months.

I wish to express our concern that the South African and international media are still dealing with Zimbabwe on the basis of unverified, unsubstantiated information. There is a lot of fabricated reports circulating in South African and international media, the latest being the saga of the Chinese ship with all the fake allegations that President Mbeki had instructed the Deputy Defence Minister to refuel the ship on the high seas. All these reports are fabricated yet no one is indicating the source of this information. There are many other such fabrications and we believe that at this very difficult and challenging time for the Zimbabweans that there is enough to write about without basing stories on fabricated reports. Our concern is that if this is emerging from international reports, why are the South African media not following up as you must in any situation to check the source of this obviously fabricated information.

When I returned from China a few weeks ago, I indicated that the Chinese had informed us that they had recalled this ship and that it was returning to China so we have no further information on this matter including South Africa refuelling the ship on the high seas.

This is in line with the general reporting on Zimbabwe which is not constructive.

Questions & Answers

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, have any foreign countries expressed concern about the safety of their citizens in South Africa?

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, how do you respond to criticism that the violence in South Africa is linked to President Mbeki's position on Zimbabwe?

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, given South Africa's social and economic challenges, has it not been irresponsible to allow border control to almost completely break down, especially on the Zimbabwe border?

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, how is it that the government finds itself surprised by what is happening when there were incidents of such phenomena for some time now?

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, seeing that the crisis in Zimbabwe is now spilling beyond its borders, do you still maintain that this is an internal matter?

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, there is a school of thought is that some of this violence has been exported from Zimbabwe so that some violence in South Africa will detract from what is happening in Zimbabwe?

Question: Deputy Minister Pahad, how have these incidents dented South Africa's image two years before the 2010 Soccer World Cup?

Answer: It is clear that this issue - and it is obvious in the South Africa media - has been reflected in reported internationally. It is simply reported in both the South African media and international media as attacks simply against foreigners without an attempt to contextualize or analyse the root causes of this phenomenon. I hope we will have long dealt with this by 2010.

Let me clearly state, these attacks in South Africa are not unique to South Africa and I think that many people abroad are fully conscious, that even in their own societies, that given globalization and other challenges, they have also experienced such phenomena. That is why in the last few years you have seen phenomena such as neo-facist parties coming to the fore in Europe. In Europe there are arguments that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs, etc, similar arguments are being used to explain what is happening in South Africa. Foreigners are aware that xenophobic phenomena are not unique to South Africa.

I think it is up to us to decisively deal with what we have experienced and I think the President has clearly indicated parameters around which we must deal with this matter and all political formations have begun to deal with this. So have church, civil society and other groups. The political formation branch structures have also begun to deal with this.

It is my view that until we receive a full report about what are the causes - criminal or otherwise - that have exploited a situation of concern for some of our people that foreigners are a scourge because they are taking away jobs and economic opportunities - this is a wrong perception because in many instances it is based on ignorance and provocation from many forces. Whether it is related to Zimbabwe or other political forces in South Africa or other agendas - it is difficult for me to tell until we have the report from the inter-departmental committee and especially the police and other security services. 200 people have been arrested. One hopes that this will open up the space to understand their motivations. That the IFP and ANC have met is an important development between the two political formations to assess involvement by their parties. The Secretary-General of the ANC has spoken on this matter and I think we agree with his view that we cannot come to any conclusions until we have more substantiated information.

We are in touch with all countries whose citizens have been affected. I think that the countries are aware that indeed, large sectors of our population, have condemned these attacks and they are convinced that it is not government policy, nor indeed policies maintained by the majority in our society. We will continue to be in touch with the governments and see how we can work together to integrate those who are in South Africa in a healthier way.

I do not know whether we have not been responsible in taking care of border control. Since 1994 we removed the electric fences separating South Africa from our neighbours because no democratic South Africa could maintain electric wire fencing on our borders with our neighbours because it would go against the very value systems we believe it. Our borders are very porous. The border control team has tried to see how we can tighten up control.

I want to stress, there is a tendency to view everyone coming across our borders as Zimbabwean - there are many other African citizens coming across our borders - there are also many coming from China, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Bangladesh - there is a totality of problems.

My own view is that in Africa - and especially SADC - the best way in which to deal with this matter would be to fastrack regional integration of which one of the elements is the free movement of people, to ensure that we develop a region - as we develop South Africa - so that South Africans view other countries as opportunities and we will therefore not just have people coming into South Africa.

In the end, if we fail to address this challenge of the development and integration of SADC, I do not think we will be able to stem the flow. You can have 1000s of troops on the border but you will not be able to stem the flow.

The Americans have one of the most expensive border control mechanisms with Mexico but they have not stopped the flow of Mexicans into the United States of America.

So the best way in which to deal with this will be the political and economic programme that will turn this tide of people coming into South Africa. It is not just the Zimbabwean illegal immigrants. There are many immigrants from Zimbabwe who are in South Africa legally and making a positive contribution to South African society.

Government was not taken by surprise by the possibility of these attacks. What has taken us by surprise is the extent and nature including the violence of what we have witnessed. It was not expected that the Mamelodi and Atteridgeville would lead to this. We tried to address the root causes but we were aware that criminal elements had exploited concerns and fears of the people.

You would not have thought that 14 years into our democracy we would suddenly experience such an explosion of attacks against foreigners when we have been trying through education and political processes to inform people about our vision of one Africa and an integrated Africa.

I am not sure, and this is linked to the question on the Zimbabwean situation, I think we would have to wait for the report - I think the most immediate task is to stop the violence, determine the perpetrators, begin a more intensified process of education linked to the broader economic strategy but we must stop this as soon as possible. South Africa is committed to helping other people in Africa, as they helped us. There are no political differences in what we have to do and I think that as the ruling party and government that we are committed, with the Alliance Partners, to take action against elements that will be found to have instigated and provoked the violence. I think this is why the President has commented so strongly through his statement that everything must be done to deal with this situation and he is awaiting his report. Once we have this report we will be able to move decisively against those who are responsible.

The only time that South Africa has experienced this form of violence was pre-1994 and we all know this was politically motivated violence. At that time when we talked of black-on-black violence we were regarded as being alarmist. Since then all reports have indicated that the black-on-black violence was not a spontaneous occurrence but was politically motivated. The symptoms are very much the same. We now await the report to determine whether we are experiencing the same phenomenon we experienced pre-1994.

Question: Deputy Minister, regarding the Chinese ship - does the South African government believe it is a healthy development for arms to be shipped to Zimbabwe in the current environment and what is your position on the call from Prime Minister Gordon Brown for a wider arms embargo against Zimbabwe?

Answer: Firstly, let me say we have a National Arms Control Committee in South Africa that has a clear mandate from Parliament and works very carefully in relation to South Africa's export of arms. We were not even aware of this ship carrying arms until it was exposed. And while government was trying to deal with this matter - the line function Ministry was the Department of Finance because SARS falls within this ambit and SARS had to determine the contents of the ship. This was all emerging while we were in China, we discussed this matter and were given an undertaking that the ship would be recalled.

It is clear that any movement of arms by anyone could escalate the tensions and possible violence in Zimbabwe but it was not as if we were conniving, as has been suggested, to get these arms into Zimbabwe.

The media should now approach the Chinese Ambassador to ascertain details around this matter.

We have a very healthy approach to dealing with South Africa's export of arms and we try to ensure that this a framework that is excepted by all other arms exporters. I am not sure if we are succeeding but I think ours is the only country with such stringent control measures on arms. Many other exporting countries do not have such regulations and legislation.

Regarding the arms embargo: this is a matter that Prime Minister Brown has called for and seeing as how the UK is the current President of the UN Security Council, I would suggest they take it through the processes and discuss this. South Africa is not exporting arms to Zimbabwe nor are 99% of the UN.

If we do everything possible to ensure the run-off proceeds smoothly, we deal with allegations of violence, create the conditions, by the time an arms embargo is imposed on Zimbabwe we may have a new situation in Zimbabwe. Let's not be diverted by issues that will take a long time to implement.

Question: Deputy Minister, you just said that "It is clear that any movement of arms by anyone could escalate the tensions and possible violence in Zimbabwe," so why is it that when South Africa had the choice to stop the arms coming through South Africa did we not do the right thing to stop this?

Answer: We did, the arms did not land in South Africa. There were different procedures that were being undertaken. You must remember that lots of goods intended for landlocked countries come through South Africa. South Africa does not check every consignment - this would be impossible. Therefore, sometimes, we are not able to determine what two countries have arranged between themselves. South Africa was caught in the middle. But generally, our own policy is not to a supplier of arms where there is the possibility or intention of violence. I do not even know what arms were on the ship.

We discussed this matter with the Chinese and were assured that the ship had been recalled.

Question: Deputy Minister, if another ship were to land tomorrow, what would South Africa do?

Answer: That is a hypothetical Question:. Let me say, rather than Answer:ing that Question: - we must intensify all our efforts to create the conditions that would allow for the re-run to take place on 27 June 2008 and we will await the report of our retired generals who will present a report on the violence that is taking place. The President, as the Facilitator, will have to take action on any reports. The other Question: that is emerging is the safety of Mr Tsvangirai so that he can return to Zimbabwe to contest the elections. He must be confident that his security is guaranteed. Everybody has the responsibility to ensure that the Zimbabweans can go to the polls so that other challenges can be effectively addressed.

These are extracts of the transcript of the briefing to the media by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad at the Union Buildings, Pretoria, Tuesday May 20 2008. Issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs