Jul 2, 2010 3:35 PM | By Sapa
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The African National Congress on Friday rejected reports that xenophobic attacks might erupt in South Africa after the Fifa World Cup.
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The reported xenophobic attacks... [are] baseless and without any rational,” spokesman Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.
“These reports are in the same mode as baseless and irrational suggestions that foreign nationals were going to be robbed and butchered when they came to witness the football spectacle in our country.”
He said the claims were “mischievous and disingenuous”.
“The ANC views [these] fallacious claims seriously and believes that there are doomsayers somewhere in dark corners who want to steal the thunder of the successful hosting of this football spectacle away from our continent through negative reporting.”
Mthembu urged fellow Africans to also reject the claims.
On Thursday, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said violence against foreigners would not be tolerated.
He said his department was aware that media and civil society organisations had over the past few weeks expressed concern about rumours that foreign nationals living in South Africa faced a threat of xenophobic violence after the end of the World Cup.
“According to these rumours, residents in certain parts of the country, with a concentration of foreign nationals, are providing a range of reasons why foreign nationals may be targeted.”
Mthethwa, who chairs the recently-established Inter-Ministerial Committee on Xenophobia, strongly rejected any claim by any community that might seek to justify violence against foreign nationals.
“The intelligence arm of the police, supported by various community structures, has been hard at work investigating these allegations across the country."
“Security agencies are on high alert to ensure that threats and manifestations of violence against any individual or group are effectively addressed,” Mthethwa said