Resources:
Open Letter to the African Commission Regarding the Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa
Published: 23 Apr 2015
South Africa’s ongoing battle against inequality
Published: 27 Aug 2012
On 16 August, police opened fire on a group of striking miners at South Africa’s Lonmin-Marikana mine leaving 37 dead and 78 injured. This took place in the new South Africa – not the old one where police repression was the norm. So how could it have happened? The answer to that question leads to…
South Africa Attempts to Help Zimbabwe Migrants through New Permit System
Published: 1 May 2009
Refugee Rights News May 2009 “[The new permit is] a clear turning point in South Africa, which up until now has had a line that there is no problem in Zimbabwe.” – Gerry Simpson, a refugee researcher with HRW Over a million Zimbabweans currently residing in South Africa have finally been granted a respite from…
Civil Society Demands Protection of Targeted Foreigners in South Africa
Published: 8 Oct 2008
Five months after the outbreak of violence against foreigners in South Africa, civil society organisations are still working to ensure that there is an appropriate governmental response. Over the last months, civil society from across Africa has become engaged with an initiative by the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative to conduct an African civil society…
“It’s Like You Don’t Exist”: Foreigners still searching for solutions two months after the xenophobic violence in South Africa
Published: 1 Jul 2008
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 5 July 2008 As usual, media attention has quickly shifted away from the violence that took place across many parts of South Africa against foreigners in May, which left over 60 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. Yet, little has been done either to address the consequences of…
South Africans, Foreigners and the Dynamics of Identity in South Africa
Published: 1 Jun 2008
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 4 June 2008 Questions of legitimacy, over who has the “right” to live where, are growing around the world, and nowhere have antagonistic articulations of identity been more graphically illustrated than in the recent attacks on foreigners in South Africa. The sheer scale and brutality of the attacks, which…
Advocates in South Africa Help Ease the Plight of Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers
Published: 1 Dec 2004
Refugee Rights News Volume 1, Issue 2 December 2004 In November 2004, the Solidarity Peace Trust based in Port Shepstone, South Africa released a 107-page report, “No War in Zimbabwe: An Account of the Exodus of a Nation’s People.” The report details the difficulties faced by Zimbabwean asylum seekers in South Africa. Although all asylum…