HARARE – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa apologised for ongoing attacks on Africans in his country after he was booed at the state funeral service of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
Ramaphosa was booed and parts of the crowd whistled as he arrived at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Saturday.
He was interrupted as he began his speech, as the crowd forced him to address the attacks on foreigners. South African authorities say at least 12 people, including one Zimbabwean, were killed in the latest outbreak of anti-foreigner violence.
“In the past two weeks, we as South Africans have been going through a challenging period,” Ramaphosa said, as the boos turned to cheers.
“We have had acts of violence erupting in some parts of the country, some of which was directed at nationals from other African countries. This has led to then deaths and injuries of a number of people, some of whom were nationals from other countries and the majority were South Africans.
“I stand before you as a fellow African to express my regret, and to apologise for what has happened in our country.”
Ramaphosa said the attacks on foreigners, which have also seen the looting of small businesses and burning of trucks driven by foreign drivers, were “against the principles of the unity of the African people that President Mugabe, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and great leaders of our continent stood for.”
“I stand before you fellow Zimbabweans, fellow Africans, to say we are working very hard to encourage all our people in South Africa to embrace people from all African countries,” Ramaphosa said.
The South African leader maintained that South Africans were generally not xenophobic, but admitted there was a problem.
“I would like to state it here and now that South Africans are not xenophobic,” he said. “South Africans are not against nationals from other countries. We welcome people from other countries, and we are going to work very hard to encourage and promote social cohesion of all the people of South Africa living and working side by side with people from other parts of our continent. This we shall do because we want to embrace the spirit of unity that president Mugabe worked for throughout his life.”
Hundreds of Nigerians, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans were assisted to leave South Africa last week as police battle to get a handle on the ongoing attacks on foreign nationals.
