A twist to last week’s xenophobic
attacks in South Africa seems to be unfolding following a newspaper report that
the violence stemmed from an “orchestrated campaign to destabilize the
country.”
The influential Mail and Guardian
reported on Friday that “security cluster officials are investigating the
possibility of an orchestrated campaign to destabilize the country.”
An investigative report by the
newspaper named the All Truck Drivers Forum (ATDF) as possible instigator of
the chaos.
It said: “High-ranking security
officials have also discussed the political motivations behind the flare-up in
violence, with theories that the violence was part of a campaign to embarrass
and ultimately destabilize the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa.”
It added: In parts of
KwaZulu-Natal, freight trucks were attacked and set alight.
Drivers found to be foreign
nationals were also assaulted.
ATDF, which purports to represent
only South African truck drivers, has dismissed the intelligence, saying that
its organisation is anti-violence. Its spokesperson, Sipho Zungu, said on
Thursday: “When this latest violence started on Monday we were in court, so
there is no way this was us. ATDF has never even had a strike, let alone
[engaged in] violence [and] looting. The nation is being misled here.
“What needs to be clarified is
that ATDF is fighting for all truck drivers in the country, no matter if they
work or not.” He went on to add: “The reality is that South African truck
drivers no longer have jobs, and we have been engaging truck owners and
government that they must get rid of foreign truck drivers.”
This kind of sentiment, and
existing tensions, were worsened by political rhetoric around access to
healthcare and unemployment before the elections. It reached boiling point last
month, when police operations in Johannesburg to find fake goods were thwarted
by shopkeepers, who pelted law-enforcement authorities with rocks, forcing a
retreat.
Public reaction to this took on a
xenophobic tinge, with some South Africans blaming foreign nationals for a host
of problems — from the proliferation of drugs and fake goods, to crime and
filth in inner-city Johannesburg.
Information shared with the JCPS
cluster last Friday indicated that meetings to discuss strategy and co-ordinate
attacks on foreign nationals were to schedule to take place this past weekend.
The meetings were to be held at venues in different parts of Gauteng, including
the Mzimhlophe grounds in Soweto, Alexandra at Pan taxi rank, Randburg taxi
rank, Ezibayeni in Hillbrow and Part Two, Diepsloot.
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