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XENOPHOBIA UPDATE: Locals and Immigrants March In Protest of Xenophobic Attacks
http://www.africaeagle.com/2015/04/xenophobia-update-locals-and-immigrants.html
About 30,000 people are marching through South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, to demand an end to a recent wave of xenophobic attacks.
Both locals and immigrants are taking part, with placards saying "Africa Unite" and "Welcome foreigners".
An anti-xenophobic protest is also taking place in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth.
South Africa's army was deployed to flashpoints on Monday to prevent further violence.
At least seven people have been killed, 5,000 left homeless and many foreign-owned shops looted since the attacks started about three weeks ago.
"We will defeat xenophobia like we defeated apartheid," the premier of South Africa's Gauteng province, David Makhura, told the crowd in Johannesburg.
Gauteng is the economic heartland of South Africa and includes Johannesburg.
Many unemployed South Africans accuse foreigners of taking their jobs.
South Africa has an official unemployment rate of around 25%.
The BBC's Pumza Fihlani reports from the scene that the crowd marched through Johannesburg's Hillbrow suburb, which some describe as Lagos because of its huge Nigerian population.
Protesters sang a sorrowful song, Senzenina, or "What have we done?" It was popular at funerals of anti-apartheid activists during white-minority rule.
"Mandela must be turning in his grave. This is not the South Africa he fought for," Johannesburg resident Vusi Hlongwane told our reporter.
In Port Elizabeth, a silent march has been held, with some protesters waving a Zimbabwean flag and and carrying placards which said: "Diversity is our strength".
South Africa has faced a backlash across Africa over the attacks.
Official data suggests there are about about two million foreign nationals in South Africa, about 4% of the total population. But some estimates put the number of immigrants at five million.
Most of them are Africans and Asians who came to South Africa when apartheid ended in 1994, with the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black leader.
