Zimbabweans Evacuated In South Africa As Xenophobic Attacks Loom
Zimbabweans shown this morning walking with their belongings and gathered at a Community Center in Der Doorns shantytown in the Western Cape Province of South Africa after South Africans turned on them and demolished 600 of their homes. This xenophobic attack has now seen 2000 people, by some reports, gathered at a hall near the local police station. Harare, Zimbabwe, 17 November 2009 Police in the Cape Province had to fire bullets to disperse a crowd that had started demolishing shacks rented by Zimbabweans in Der Doorns, which is South Africa's Western Cape Province. The residents were protesting that Zimbabweans in the area accept lower pay and are, therefore, depriving South Africans of jobs. But other sources say that the flare-up in the violence was prompted the previous night when a fight involving Zimbabweans and South Africans broke out at a shebeen (informal drinking place). The Times of South Africa reports that a police spokesman confirmed this, saying 68 Zimbabweans ha...