Fears That Xenophobic Attacks Will Pick Back Up After Cup

Officials in Gauteng Province are concerned that life after the World Cup could bring back the xenophobic attacks on foreigners within South Africa that resulted in dozens of deaths and thousands of displacements in 2008.

GCRO [Gauteng City Region Observatory] senior researcher Annsilla Nyar told Sapa she believed the end of the World Cup would leave many people, who had high expectations of material benefits, disappointed.

"Life will pretty much return to normal... The World Cup will end and then we will have local government elections in a few months' time.

"It creates a heightening of tensions... and these kind of tensions can degenerate into xenophobia. It's a real recipe for disaster."

Migrants fear attacks after SWC
News 24
May 27, 2010

Xenophobic Attacks Feared to Rise After World Cup

Migrants from Zimbabwe and other nearby countries who have flooded into South Africa looking for work are being threatened with violence by locals who say the foreigners are stealing their jobs.

This week, two years after the start of the 2008 riots that left scores dead across the country, a consortium of leading migration organisations said it had received reports by foreign nationals that they were being threatened with violence after the tournament.

"These threats are coming from many different people: neighbours, colleagues, taxi drivers, passersby, but also from nurses, social workers and police officers," said Cormsa, whose members include Amnesty International, the South African Red Cross Society, and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation . "Some of those making the threats believe that they have the support of senior political leaders," it said.

Warning of xenophobic violence in South Africa after World Cup
Guardian
May 17, 2010

Dalai Lama Denied SA Visa For Peace Conference

On the advice of Chinese officials, South Africa has denied a visa to the Dalai Lama, who was set to visit South Africa for a meeting to try to lay out a plan to use the excitement and investment around the World Cup to improve civil rights. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President FW De Klerk have backed out of the meeting.

The Dalai Lama had planned to join other Nobel peace laureates at a conference to discuss ways of using football to fight racism and xenophobia ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"It is true that South Africa, under intense pressure from the Chinese authorities, have denied a visa to the Dalai Lama," spokesperson Thubten Samphel told reporters.

Source:
SA denies visa for the Dalai Lama
Independent Online
March 23, 2009

More on the background of China-SA economic relations:

Over the past two years, South Africa has been China's key trade partner in Africa, accounting for 20.8 percent of China's trade with Africa, while Chinese foreign direct investment in South Africa was about $6 billion (R60bn), and South Africa's foreign direct investment in China came to $2bn (R20bn).

Dai Bing, ministerial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Pretoria, confirmed that his government had appealed to the South African government not to allow the Dalai Lama into the country, warning that if it did so, this would harm bilateral relations.

Source:

Independent Online
March 22, 2009