AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - “The violence was organized by powers interested in destabilizing the country,” says Head of the South African Secret Service. Commentary from a missionary.

Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) - The anti-immigrant violence is extending to other parts of South Africa. After Johannesburg, episodes of violence have been confirmed in Cape Town and Durban. President Thabo Mbeki ordered the army to reinforce the police, in order to restore order and protect foreigners. However, thousands of immigrants have decided to take refuge and return to their homelands, as well as thousands of Malawi citizens. Since the violence broke out, 40 people have died and over 16,000 have fled from the affected areas due to the chaos, whole the police have arrested nearly 500 people.
In the meantime, South Africa is asking questions as to the cause of the violence. The Director of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the internal security service, has indicated the presence of several “powers” interested in destabilizing the country, in light of next year’s presidential elections.
“The existence of forces that have organized assaults on immigrants is a hypothesis that should be taken into account, but that can make us forget the other side of the problem - the war among the poor for control of the little resources available in the towns, for essential services (health and education), for water, food, work,” said a Combonian missionary named Fr. Efrem Tresoldi, living in Pretoria. “On the other hand, the security services themselves have presented alarming reports on the potentially explosive situations of the towns, however no one has taken the necessary measures to eliminate the tensions in time. It is true that the authorities have an extensive labor, as the influx of people from the rural areas to the city is continual and it is difficult to ensure the necessary services for all these people.”
One of the root causes of the crisis has been the rural situation and the tendency of the South African people to move to the cities. “The youth that live in the rural zone are more and more attracted by life in the city on a cultural level (the urban model is what is placed in front of them) as well as due to the fact that the majority of the rural population of African origin lives today on what is called the “homelands,” areas created by the Apartheid regime designated for the black population. They are lands that are inadequate for agriculture, abandoned by the Caucasian population. In South Africa, just as in Zimbabwe, there is a problem with the redistribution of land, however there is a need to act with prudence in order to avoid the disaster produced by Mugabe in his country,” Fr. Efrem said.
“South Africans are moving from the rural parts to the city, then they enter into competition with the immigrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, Somalia, or from Asian countries like Pakistan. Types of jealousy are created as the foreigners, for evident reasons, are much more dynamic and enterprising: they create their own businesses and small companies and are willing to work with lower salaries than the South Africans. Naturally, there are companies that take advantage of this situation and thus prefer to contract foreigners and pay them a miserly amount,” the missionary explained.
The violence has also led gold miners of the Johannesburg area (that employ immigrants) to lessen their activity. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 23/5/2008; righe 42, parole 538)