by Our Foreign Desk

SHOPS and cars owned by foreigners were set ablaze in central Johannesburg during the latest attacks on immigrants in South Africa, which continued into yesterday morning.

Rioters battled with police officers overnight and at least 12 people were taken into custody for attempting to break into “foreign-owned shops,” police said.

The protesters were demanding that workers from elsewhere in Africa and South Asia return home.

Police in Johannesburg p were also called into action against African immigrant vigilantes who had armed themselves with machetes, firing rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the group.

In one suburb, foreigners afraid to return to their homes took refuge in a community centre.

However, the situation was calmer elsewhere in the country.

Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said that no incidents had been reported in the coastal city of Durban, where the violence began.

Many thousands of people took to the streets there on Thursday to march against xenophobia.

They marched peacefully to the city hall, but hundreds of anti-immigrant protesters attempted to disrupt the demonstration and police had to disperse them.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) condemned attacks on foreign nationals in strong terms.

Both organisations appealed to their members to take action in their respective communities in defence of peace.  
When similar attacks occurred in Soweto, the SACP mobilised to stop them.

The party said it had been doing the same in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere throughout the country.

The spate of violence was provoked in part by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini when he said that immigrants in South Africa should “take their bags and go” and added: “We must deal with our own lice.”

The king’s outburst provoked sharp rejoinders at home and abroad.

“Xenophobia today can easily mutate into genocide tomorrow. Stop it,” tweeted Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, adding that the Zulu king should “extinguish what he ignited.”

Zimbabwean police were involved in minor clashes with dozens of protesters demonstrating at the South African embassy against the anti-immigrant attacks.

The protesters handed over a petition to embassy officials demanding an end to the violence.