It's an absolute disgrace - Mbeki

Cape Town - The disgraceful xenophobic violence of the past two weeks is the opposite of everything South Africans have achieved since the victory over apartheid, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday.

"The shameful actions of a few have blemished the name of South Africa through criminal acts against our African brothers and sisters from other parts of the continent, as well as other foreign residents, especially from Asia.

"Never since the birth of our democracy, have we witnessed such callousness," he said in a national television broadcast.

African unity, to which SA was committed, meant that "in our own country, we must continue to live together with our brothers and sisters from other African countries as good neighbours".

Sadly, Africa day, on Sunday, was being marked in SA "with our heads bowed", he said.

Absolute disgrace

"As part of the reflection that Africa Day requires of all of us, we must acknowledge the events of the past two weeks as an absolute disgrace.

"The violence and criminality we have seen by a few South Africans stands against everything we have sought to do to build a humane and caring society built on the values of Ubuntu," Mbeki said.

"The actions of these few individuals do not reflect the values of our people who for decades have lived together with their fellow African brothers and sisters, whom they accept, without question, truly as their own."

South Africans should remember their struggle for liberation had always been both national and pan-African.

"We must never forget that our economy was built by the combined labour of Africans drawn from all countries of our region, many of whom died in our mines together with their fellow South African workers.

Apartheid aggression

"Neither should we forget that many people from other African countries helped to build our liberation movement, while many in our region died because of apartheid aggression as they supported us in the struggle to defeat apartheid," he said.

"We must also sustain the understanding that our own progress and prosperity is dependent on the progress and prosperity of our neighbours and other African countries."

The violence and criminality soiled the good name of the best of SA's leaders such as Nelson Mandela.

Savagery

"These leaders, together with the overwhelming majority of our people, have always understood that they are South Africans and Africans: they are both local and continental.

"None of these leaders, nor the majority of our people, would ever countenance such savagery as we have seen in the last two weeks," Mbeki said.

"For this reason, many of our communities have rallied together to defeat the senseless agitation of the few seeking to mount attacks on people from other parts of the continent."

Many South African, black and white, had come out to condemn this barbarity, offering food, shelter and clothing to those affected.

"We commend and thank all these patriots and appeal to them to continue their good work, to reject and isolate the criminals in our midst and extend a hand of friendship to our foreign guests who are nothing more than our fellow-human beings."

Concerns

Mbeki said whatever concerns people had, including those about housing and jobs, had to be addressed in a manner consistent with the dignified, humane and caring characteristics that defined the majority of South Africans, not through criminal means.

"They must be addressed through the structures of our democratic system.

"Humanity, democracy and protection of the law are indivisible. What begins as attacks on people from other countries also involves, as we have seen, the killing, rape and looting of property belonging to fellow South African citizens."

Everything possible would be done to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The necessary instructions had been issued to the law enforcement forces and other such bodies to do everything necessary to stop and apprehend the killers and looters, and ensure that everybody in the country lived in conditions of safety and security.

Arrests

"Working together with the South African National Defence Force, the Police have already apprehended more than 250 alleged perpetrators.

The police will continue to do their job and will root out of our communities the criminal elements who deserve to be nowhere else but in jail.

"Nobody should be left in doubt about the seriousness with which the entire government views this matter. No one should doubt the capacity of the state to deal firmly and decisively with criminal elements, however daring they may be," Mbeki said.

"Civic education is a vital part of what we need to do to deal with the events of the last two weeks.

"We must all assist one another to understand the phenomenon of migration, its global nature, its causes and how others elsewhere in the world manage it, avoiding its mismanagement.

Time for unity

"I also call upon community, political, religious, civil society, media and other leaders of our people to act together against the manipulation of our people by criminal elements.

"This is the time for unity - it is a time to speak with one voice against something which, if it takes root, will take us back to a past of violent conflict, which no one among us can afford.

"I would like to reiterate that while government will do everything in its power to address our people's concerns, we will never accept violence and destroying and looting the property of any person, regardless of their country of origin, as legitimate ways of addressing those concerns," Mbeki said.

- SAPA