Xenophobia: Cops go door-to-door
2010-07-15 19:13
Polokwane - Police in Musina, Limpopo, have embarked on an awareness campaign to encourage locals to be tolerant of foreign nationals.
Musina, which is situated at the Beit Bridge border post between South African and Zimbabwe, is known as the Gateway to Africa and has a high number of documented and un-documented foreigners from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and even Pakistan and India.
"Since the report of possible xenophobic attacks came out last week, we started an awareness campaign on Monday at Nancefield, Weipe and Mopani farms and Doreen, as well as other areas," said Musina police spokesperson Sydney Ringane.
He said more than 600 illegal immigrants cross the Limpopo River into Musina every day seeking asylum, before dispersing further into the country once they have received their asylum documents.
Ringane said that since Monday, members of the Musina Social Crime Prevention Unit had been visiting communities to spread a message of peace.
"We visit locals and foreigners at their homes and businesses and ask their views about xenophobia and use that information to asses if there is any danger of an attack on foreigners,” said Ringane.
Tolerance
So far, the general mood in the town is one of tolerance, he said.
"People from Musina are far from being xenophobic as they are used to being integrated with foreigners, especially Zimbabweans and Mozambicans," he said.
He said that the xenophobic violence that plagued the rest of the country in 2008, had not affected Musina either.
"Most of our local community are married to foreigners and we visit each other from time to time which is why it should not be possible for xenophobia to happen here," he said.
He debunked misperceptions that crimes are perpetrated by foreign nationals.
"Our crime records (in Musina) reflect normal crimes that we've always had, like robbery, rape, assault, theft and house-breaking.
These crimes are committed by both locals and foreigners and, even in our cells, we have a balanced number of locals and nationals,” Ringane said.
