High-ranking politicans had become "peddlers of fear" over xenophobia, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Friday.

"We condemn and caution against this alarmist phobia by those who fuel these rumours," he said in what his ministry distributed as the text of a speech at a xenophobia summit in Khayelitsha.

"These are the people who prior to the 2010 Fifa World Cup embarked on the infamous smear campaign, saying there will be bloodbath in this country and that crime is spiralling out of control," he said.

"It becomes such a pity when those who claim to be leaders are supposed to discharge leadership and guidance to project a common cause, end up being the peddlers of fear and anxiety."
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The minister's comments were aimed at "leaders who hold high positions in government and in society", his ministry said.

On Thursday Mthethwa dismissed as "hysteria" reports that foreigners were fleeing the Western Cape in anticipation of a backlash again them after the tournament.

He said an investigation showed that the scores of foreigners leaving the city in the past few days were seasonal workers returning home.

Head of the Western Cape's local government department Hildegarde Fast told reporters on Friday morning that police had assessed the threat of xenophobic violence in the province as "low".

"In their view there is a low level of threat," said Fast.

She would not indicate whether there had been a relative rise or decrease in the level of the risk in recent weeks as South Africa hosted the world's biggest sporting event.

Fast said Western Cape authorities had a reliable monitoring system and passed reports of any risk of community conflict to the police to investigate.

Mediators were also sent in to defuse tension, which generally arose from a battle for scarce resources.

"We are responding to the fact that there are increased reports. The province feels the main focus is on preventing anything from happening," she said.

"If one feels the level of threat is rising in a particular community, the police are committed to immediately deploying extra resources to have quite a visible presence."

The head of disaster management in Cape Town, Greg Pillay, said the city could not afford a repeat of the 2008 outbreak of xenophobia that made headlines around the world.

The crisis claimed 70 lives countrywide and cost Cape Town authorities some R200 million of which most was spent on providing shelter for foreigners.

"We learnt many lessons from 2008 and the emphasis definitely is really on pro-active actions; what can we do to reduce the risk.... From the city's side, we also have an early warning system," he said.

Fast said every disaster management district in the province had identified places of safety where foreigners under threat could be accommodated.

"That is the absolute fall-back position."

Rumours of a post world cup outbreak of xenophobia have persisted since late May when a group of eminent global leaders called the "Elders" warned foreigners might be targeted after the event as jobs start becoming scarcer.

Former Ireland president Mary Robinson, a member of the group, said at the time: "We are more worried after the world cup, the possibilities of xenophobia... construction jobs fall away and people, especially from Zimbabwe, will be looking for jobs."

But Fast said authorities saw no special reason why the risk of xenophobia would be greater after the tournament, and could not pinpoint the cause of rumours of imminent attacks.

"I would just be speculating if I said why there would be more rumours now than before the world cup," she told reporters. - Sapa