South African police warned anti-immigration groups Wednesday against taking the law into their own hands after two Mozambicans were killed in the first deaths linked to protests against illegal migrants.
The Mozambicans died in the southern coastal town of Mossel Bay after a small demonstration against illegal migrants on Friday, one of several held in centres across the country in recent weeks.
The Mozambique government said Monday five of its citizens had died in “xenophobic attacks” but South Africa’s security coordination body again rejected this toll.
Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili did, however, confirm that the two Mozambican deaths were “during activities associated with anti-foreigner demonstrations”.
They are the first linked to a new wave of protests by fringe groups that accuse undocumented foreign nationals of crime and taking scarce jobs and resources from locals.
Security forces would not allow any group to “take the law into its own hands, conduct unlawful operations, intimidate communities, target individuals based on their nationality”, Mosikili said.
“There is no grievance, concern, frustration or cause that can justify murder, assault, intimidation, arson, looting, xenophobic attacks or any other form of criminal conduct,” she said.
“Violence is not activism. Intimidation is not community protection.”
South Africa has experienced repeated waves of xenophobic violence over the past decades and the new flare-up has seen vigilantes going door-to-door to tell foreign nationals to leave by June 30.
Countries including Ghana and Nigeria have moved to repatriate their nationals, and others like Kenya, Lesotho and Zimbabwe have urged their citizens to exercise caution.
Mosikili said authorities had made scores of arrests for violence and intimidation of foreign nationals.
More than 5,000 foreign nationals had also been arrested in the past three weeks for not having the proper documentation to be in South Africa, she said.
Nearly 35,000 had been arrested since January, she said.
