Riyaz Patel
Malawian civic organisations are demanding that the African Union and SADC hold South Africa’s leaders accountable for their statements on migration in the run-up to the May poll.
The NGOs believe those comments resulted in the sporadic looting of foreign-owned shops.
They’ve called on the SADC to convene an extraordinary session of the heads of states to resolve the matter.
One hundred and fifty Malawian NGOs, under the banner of Black Economic Empowerment Movement, said the AU must make a pronouncement on the black-on-black violence in South Africa, EWN reported.
The movement’s Bright Kampaundi: “That will force the South African leadership to take responsibility on its pronouncements on foreigners it was making during the campaign period. This has a direct bearing on what is happening right now.”
Kampaundi said it was saddening that the recently held SADC summit of heads of government didn’t discuss the ongoing violence in South Africa.
The movement has given SADC 21 days to respond.
The claim was echoed by Nomfundo Mogapi, the executive director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), who said political rhetoric on foreign nationals played a contributing factor.
“There are socio-economic aspects that trigger these attacks on African nationals and these are compounded by political rhetoric on immigration by politicians that reinforces negative sentiments toward African migrants,” added Mogapi.
Gareth Newham of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) agreed with Mogapi’s comments that blaming foreign nationals for the ills in South Africa was nothing more than scapegoating.
Newham said politicians often apportioned blame to deflect their own failings in the government.
On the looting, he added that criminals preferred to target foreign national-owned shops because they “believe, correctly, that police will take those cases less seriously.”
Newham claimed xenophobic sentiments were high within the police.
And in another development, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has informed the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) that he is no longer attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa being held in Cape Town.
Kagame joins Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi and Nigeria who have also withdrawn their participation, citing the recent violence and the looting of foreign-owned shops.
DIRCO spokesperson, Lunga Ngqengelele said: “I can confirm that we did receive confirmation from Rwanda that the president has withdrawn, but we did not get an indication that it is because of the sporadic violence taking place in South Africa at the moment.”
He added: “With DRC and Malawi, we have not received any official correspondence so we are unable to confirm if they are coming or not.”
Zambia has also cancelled a scheduled friendly match with Bafana Bafana citing security concerns.
