PRETORIA,
South Africa (AP) — Police fired stun grenades, rubber bullets and
water cannon Friday as the latest wave of anti-immigrant protests broke
out in South Africa's capital, while President Jacob Zuma condemned the
violence but said his country's migrant burden is bigger than Europe's.
A
petition the protesters handed to the foreign ministry, seen by The
Associated Press, suggested that the government teach foreigners to
speak properly. "They are arrogant and they don't know how to talk to
people especially Nigerians," it said.
Resentment
against foreigners has sometimes turned deadly in South Africa amid
accusations that they take jobs from locals in a country where
unemployment is above 25 percent. Others are blamed for drug-dealing and
other crimes. In 2015, anti-immigrant riots in and around the city of
Durban killed at least six people. In 2008, similar violence killed
about 60 people.
Police
on Friday tried to keep protesters apart from foreigners who gathered
to express alarm about recent attacks. Police Commissioner Khomotso
Phalane said 136 people had been arrested in the past 24 hours.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation in a statement criticized authorities for "giving permission for a march of hatred."
The
periodic backlash against foreigners has hurt the tolerant image South
Africa has tried to present to the world after the long struggle to stop
the harsh discrimination of white minority rule, which ended in 1994.
South
Africans should not blame all crime on non-South Africans, the
statement from Zuma's office said. It cited recent reports of violence
in Pretoria and hate speech on social media.
"Many
citizens of other countries living in South Africa are law abiding and
contribute to the economy of the country positively," the president
said. "It is wrong to brandish all non-nationals as drug dealers or
human traffickers."
An
Amnesty International statement blamed authorities' "failure to address
toxic populist rhetoric that blames and scapegoats refugees and
migrants."
Zuma
said South Africans are not xenophobic, and he called on everyone,
citizens and non-citizens, to work together to combat the country's high
crime rate.
Despite
South Africa's high unemployment, the country is one of Africa's
largest economies and remains a draw for people from far more
impoverished nations across the continent. Businesses run by Somalis,
Ethiopians and others are often targeted in anti-foreigner protests.
In
video posted by broadcaster News 24, Zuma said that "the numbers of the
foreigners in South Africa are far more than the numbers that Europe is
fighting about." Europe, however, saw more than 360,000 people arrive
by sea last year alone, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
South
African government data show the number of foreign-born people in the
country has declined. A report last year said the 1.6 million foreign
born people was down from 2.2 million in 2011 — in a country of more
than 55 million people.
Zuma's
statement acknowledged complaints about companies that hire illegal
immigrants and said the foreign affairs office "will be cracking down on
all employers who continue with this practice, which is dangerous as it
pits locals against non-nationals."
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