Anti-foreigners demonstrations on today in South Africa

Trouble might be near for Malawians living in South Africa. South Africans will today invade streets of the capital Pretoria in protest against foreigners.

The March which has been organised by concerned citizens of Mamelodi will see natives voicing out their concerns at the Pretoria Central Business District. The protest is economically driven as South Africans are tired of seeing foreigners scrambling for jobs meant for them.

Foreigners are also perceived as engineers of criminal activities in the rainbow nation, ranging from drug peddling to prostitution.

Last week, a total of 34 shops owned by foreigners were looted on the grounds of accommodating illegal businesses. Nigerians were the worst affected.

According to the concerned citizens of Mamelodi, the looting was in an effort to purge their societies. They argue that foreigners, Nigerians in particular, are at the centre of drug deals as well as running brothels which they can no longer tolerate.

The South African government has since appealed to the protesting parties to express themselves responsibly. This is to safeguard the spirit of Ubuntu (humanity) which the nation struggled to attain.

The government has on the other hand condemned the attacks on foreign nationals saying they are better described as criminal activities than xenophobic attacks. This is in response to spreading claims of xenophobic attacks in the rainbow nation.

It has promised to probe companies in a bid to identify undocumented foreigners. This is a way of reducing flocking of foreigners into the country without proper documentation which triggers attacks.

South Africa hosts the greatest number of immigrants in Africa. Malawians are among those that flee to the South in the quest for greener pastures.

Xenophobic attacks which took centre stage in South Africa in 2008 and 2015 affected thousands of Malawians among other nationals. In the latest attacks, over 3000 Malawians fell victims.