(HERALD) ‘Zim students in S. Africa safe’

‘Zim students in S. Africa safe’
Herald Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS studying at South African universities are reported to be safe from the xenophobic attacks, which had by yesterday spread to Cape Town. The co-ordinator of the Presidential Scholarship Programme and the Minister of Transport and Communications, Cde Christopher Mushohwe — who has just returned from South Africa — said authorities at some of the universities he visited told him that they had not received any reports of attacks on students.

The xenophobic attacks, which have so far claimed 42 lives and displaced more than 16 000 immigrants, were yesterday condemned by African Union leaders who met in Tanzania for a mini-summit. Cde Mushohwe was attending the graduation of 172 Zimbabwean students at Fort Hare who were studying under the Presidential Scholarship Fund.

"Our students are safe at the bases in South Africa. I have not received any reports (of attacks) and I want to believe the attacks could not have affected the colleges and institutions of tertiary education as I would have been briefed of such a development.

"I am glad that the South African government is now working to put an end to the attacks that have displaced a number of people of foreign origin," he said.

Cde Mushohwe said out of the 172 students, 32 qualified with a first degree in the disciplines they were studying.

"I want to take this opportunity to tell the nation that our students in South Africa are raising the country’s flag high. Their performance confirms that Cde Mugabe was right in championing the programme that has seen over 200 students benefiting every year. This has made it easy for us to sell the capabilities of our prospective students to these institutions," he said.

This year the programme saw 481 students receive scholarships to study at 10 universities in South Africa.

The students, who are the first to be bonded for future State service, are studying at Fort Hare, Rhodes, KwaZulu-Natal, Witwatersrand, Venda, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela, Metropolitan, Cape Peninsula and Walter Sisulu universities.

Cde Mushohwe said Government has already paid tuition and accommodation fees for students at six of the 10 universities and will be settling outstanding bills as soon as they are advised of the fees by authorities at the others.

The wave of anti-immigrant violence spread to Cape Town yesterday even as troops deployed to help the police appeared to have quelled the unrest in the hotspot of Johannesburg.

Police spokesman for the Cape Town area Billy Jones said a public meeting to address the danger of xenophobia in the Du Noon slum area — 20 kilometres north of the city — degenerated into violence on Thursday evening.

"Groups within the crowd started to loot shops owned by Zimbabweans and other foreigners," he told AFP, saying 500 had since fled the area and were staying in community centres.

"Some people were assaulted, but mostly shops were looted."

Pakistanis were also targeted in Free State on Thursday. Twenty-two people were arrested after a group of people was seen throwing stones at their shops.

Spokesman for the defence forces General Kwena Mangope told AFP yesterday there had been no further army deployments.

AU heads of state meeting in Tanzania expressed shock at the deadly anti-immigrant violence in South Africa, AU chairman President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania told reporters.

"The committee expressed shock," he said after a mini-summit near the northern town of Arusha in which South African President Thabo Mbeki also participated.

"It is not the policy of the government of South Africa but acts of thuggery . . . What is happening now in South Africa at a time when we are trying to unite the continent is really an anti-climax," added Kikwete.

Also present in the summit were Nigerian President Umaru Yar’adua, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, all members of a panel overseeing plans to have an AU government.

The reports of the spread of the wave of violence came when African countries whose nationals were targets of the attacks were mobilising to repatriate or offer support to those displaced.

The government of Malawi said it had begun helping to evacuate its citizens after saying a national had been shot dead in an attack in Johannesburg.

"More than 850 Malawians have been affected by the current violence. All Malawians willing to return home will be evacuated," Ben Mbewe, Foreign Affairs principal secretary, said in a statement.

"The government will do everything possible to ease the plight of affected Malawians," he said.

In Mozambique, Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi told state media that the government had chartered 17 buses in South Africa to ferry Mozambicans back home.

President Armando Guebuza had said on Thursday his government was ready to help Mozambicans return from South Africa where they have been particularly targeted alongside Zimbabweans.

"The government is working with the South African government," Guebuza told a public meeting. "We are prepared to assist those that want to return home."

More than 3 000 Mozambicans have already fled the violence in South Africa, according to state media.

Zimbabwe’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday it would assist with the return of xenophobia victims as well as the repatriation of the remains of the dead.

"The staff in these missions have visited the affected areas and met Zimbabweans who are under the protection of the South African government in police stations and at community centres," the ministry said in a statement.

"The Government of Zimbabwe urges those responsible for the xenophobic violence to appreciate that we in the Sadc region share a common history, a common culture and common destiny."

Rwanda also called on its citizens to be prudent and avoid affected areas. The majority of Rwandans living in South Africa are students.

"Because of the xenophobic criminal acts in progress, the Embassy of Rwanda in South Africa appeals to all the members of the Rwandan community to leave the affected areas," read a statement.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, meanwhile, was trying to assure the safety of an estimated 80 000 citizens living in South Africa.

DRC lawmaker Kasongo Numbi Kashemukanda told AFP the country’s citizens were entitled to protection, after raising a motion in the country’s parliament to ask government to ensure the safety of those in South Africa.

"We have already contacted the South African ambassador to Kinshasa and expressed our fears for the lives of the Congolese who are there," he said.

DRC’s ambassador to South Africa Bene Mpoko urged his compatriots, three of whom were injured in the violent attacks, to keep safe and avoid public places.

The small landlocked kingdom of Swaziland warned its citizens to be careful, but said it had full confidence in the South African government’s ability to contain the outbreak of violence.

The Swazi government’s Press secretary Percy Simelane said they were keeping in touch with their South African embassy.

"Up until midday (today) we had not heard any bad news on our people but we are equally saddened about what has happened to other African brothers and we hope the South African government will overcome this," Simelane told AFP.