The Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Tuesday announced that the South African Defence Force will be deployed to Alexandra to deal with the xenophobic attacks.
She says if we allow this to continue it will later affect schools and hospitals. “Those people are vulnerable. We are not here to take over the job of police,” Mapisa-Nqakula said. Three weeks ago xenophobic attacks flared up in KwaZulu-Natal and then the violence quickly spread to the Gauteng province.
Seven people have died due to the violence; this excludes the death of Emmanuel Sithole, a Mozambican national, who succumbed to his stab wounds after he was attacked in Alexandra at the weekend. Mapisa-Nqakula said a Zimbabwean couple was shot at in the township on Monday night. A Mozambican national was also killed in the area on Saturday in latest wave of anti-immigrant violence that has so far claimed seven lives. Authorities say 307 people have been arrested with regard to the recent xenophobic attacks in the country.
A Zimbabwean family is claiming a relative was killed and decapitated in the recent wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The family in Harare says 41-year-old Naume Garusa had been living and working legally in South Africa for 13 years. Her body is expected back in Harare today.
Family members told the state-run Herald newspaper that they think she was killed and decapitated in a xenophobic attack near Houghton as she returned home from work last week. Police in Gauteng have confirmed they found the body of the Zimbabwean woman dumped in Killarney on Tuesday, but a spokesperson says police don’t think the murder was related to the xenophobic violence. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa Isaac Moyo has told official media that the body of a Zimbabwean man, killed in the Durban attacks, is due to be sent home soon.
