by Our Foreign Desk

South African President Jacob Zuma postponed an honours ceremony yesterday to allow national mourning for seven people murdered in anti-immigrant violence.

The ceremony, which has been rescheduled for next Monday, sees the bestowal of the country’s highest official honour upon both citizens and non-citizens who have contributed to South Africa.

It was intended to be held on April 27, a holiday marking the first democratic elections in 1994 that ended apartheid.

But three South Africans and four people from other African countries have lost their lives in a series of attacks on immigrants since the end of March.

Six died in the coastal city of Durban, where looters broke into shops owned by immigrants, police said. The violence has since subsided.

And the Sunday Times newspaper published photographs of a fatal attack on a Mozambican man in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township at the weekend.

Authorities arrested three suspects and are searching for a fourth, the police force said on its Twitter account.

Religious groups, trade unions and other organisations plan a march on Thursday in Johannesburg to condemn the violence.

The attacks stem from a perception that immigrants, many from other African states, are taking jobs at the expense of South Africans in a country with high unemployment.

Government officials have provided food and shelter to more than 1,000 people who have fled their homes and police have arrested more than 300 suspects, officials said.