The Police in South African on Friday fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up clashes between local protesters and immigrants at a rally in Pretoria against foreigners.
Several South Africans marched toward the foreign ministry calling for the deportation of foreigners who they claim have taken their jobs, an incident which has led to the killing of several Nigerians.
“We don’t have hate! We don’t have hate!” one foreign man was heard shouting in a video posted by eNCA, a local broadcaster.
Police tried to keep protesters, some of them armed with sticks and pipes, apart from foreigners who were gathered to express alarm about recent attacks.
There was a standoff between 100 protestors and 100 or so mostly Somali nationals who had come out onto the streets … saying they would defend themselves, their families homes and businesses, said Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg.
South Africa’s unemployment rate is above 25 percent.
While some foreigners are blamed for “stealing jobs”, others are accused of crimes such as drug-dealing.
Resentment against foreigners has sometimes turned deadly.
In 2015, anti-immigrant riots in and around the city of Durban killed at least six people. In 2008, similar violence killed at least 62 people.
The main group behind Friday’s protests, Mamelodi Concerned Residents, remained peaceful.
But Pretoria’s police said in a statement that another group of people from Atteridgeville, which is west of Pretoria, “blocked roads, burnt tyres and threw stones”.
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