CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS): Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg has forbidden Catholics in his archdiocese to be involved in attacks against foreigners that have left more than 20 people dead and dozens injured.
“Everyone who takes a step in a march in a township to protest ‘foreigners’ is taking a step closer to hell,” Archbishop Tlhagale said in a May 15 statement.
Archbishop Tlhagale is president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Noting that the Ten Commandments “extend to our treatment of foreigners”, he said “attacks on those who were not born in South Africa are a cause of real shame and concern”.
The United Nation’s IRIN news agency reported that up to 1000 people sought shelter at police stations in Alexandra, a township in northern Johannesburg, where the violence began on May 11 following a community meeting to address social problems in the area.
The attacks occurred mostly in townships in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg.
In one incident, two Zimbabweans and a South African were killed when a mob, accusing them of stealing jobs, burned shacks belonging to Zimbabweans and Malawians.
Police said on May 19 that nearly 220 people have been arrested for the attacks.
Up to 3 million Zimbabweans are estimated to have fled to South Africa to escape violence, severe shortages of basic commodities and 80 per cent unemployment.
Ten million people are estimated to have come to South Africa seeking a better life since apartheid ended in 1994.
A “new apartheid mentality is killing our country and our dignity,” Archbishop Tlhagale said, noting that “no one has the right to remove our God-given dignity and our human rights”.
