Anti Xenophobia Group Calls for Calm and Tolerance Following Calls for Foreigners to Leave SA

• Kopanong Africa Against Xenophobia is a group that promotes the interests of migrants in South Africa and has called for calm and tolerance
• As living standards in South Africa drop, incidents of xenophobic violence have increased and the group has called for a national debate on the issue
• The group has been trying to stage a march but has faced a number of challenges and accused the government of not doing enough

PRETORIA - Kopanong Africa Against Xenophobia is planning on marching against threats and intimidation to foreigners who are not legally in the country.

The anti-xenophobia group slammed the language used by xenophobic groups calling it fascist rhetoric. The group has been trying to stage a march with little success.

Ferron Pedro spoke to eNCA and shared some of the challenges the group faced in the wake of calls for violence against foreigners.

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She revealed that the anti-migrant rhetoric from some sections of government has made it difficult for the group to get cooperation from law enforcement and be able to hold their march.

Pedro called for peace and tolerance and a national debate surrounding the issue of migrants. She said that the biggest problem was the vast amount of misinformation being distributed.

Kopanong Africa Against Xenophobia said that the high unemployment and crime cannot be solely blamed on migrants and that there are other contributing factors.

Pedro said that the government is unable to deal with legal citizens, let alone migrants. As a result, the government is not doing enough to help with the issues surrounding xenophobia.

News24 reported that the group was formed quite recently in response to the xenophobic attacks that have become more commonplace in South Africa.

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Xenophobic tensions spill over in Bredasdorp, residents and foreigners clash

Earlier, Briefly News reported that residents of Bredasdorp took to the streets and skirmishes broke out between them and foreigners as xenophobic tensions reached boiling point.

The violence erupted on Thursday and Friday with spaza shops and property belonging to foreign nationals being targeted by angry residents.

On Thursday, a group of disgruntled residents marched to the local municipality to hand over their memorandum of concerns, however, as they returned to their homes the group broke up into smaller clusters.

Source: Briefly News