2008 anti-foreigner attacks in SA were systematic and planned – Mbeki

Mbeki

Cape Town — Former President Thabo Mbeki revealed that the 2008 xenophobic attacks in Alexandra were allegedly part of a planned effort to drive Zimbabweans back home to vote against Robert Mugabe.

Speaking at the University of South Africa, Mbeki said an intelligence report from his presidency detailed the people and motives behind the attacks, EWN reported.

“An intelligence report with names, dates and venues where people met and planned this and so on… It’s presented as a xenophobic attack by the people of Alexandra – it was wrong… it was organised, systematic, for a political purpose. I’m seeing the mistake we made, we should’ve declassified that intelligence report,” the report quoted the former president as saying.

These attacks, which began in May 2008, coincided with Zimbabwe’s run-off election between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, after the initial vote in March failed to produce a clear winner.

Mbeki criticised the presentation of the attacks as purely xenophobic and suggested they were systematically organised for political purposes.

He also noted the importance of strengthening South Africa’s border management, clarifying that the country’s economic crisis is not caused by foreigners.

According to The Citizen, the May 2008 attacks resulted in 62 deaths, 1,700 injuries, and the displacement of 100,000 people, sending shockwaves across the nation. The violence, which began on 11 May in Alexandra, rapidly spread nationwide, severely impacting areas like the Ramaphosa settlement on the East Rand.

Mbeki’s recent comments, 16 years after the attacks, contrast sharply with his statements at the time. In 2008, he had described the violence as “naked criminal activity”, Mail & Guardian reported.

He argued that the attacks were not motivated by extreme nationalism or chauvinism, nor by a widespread hatred of foreigners.

“What happened during those days was not inspired by possessed nationalism, or extreme chauvinism, resulting in our communities violently expressing the hitherto unknown sentiments of mass and mindless hatred of foreigners — xenophobia,” the report quoted Mbeki as saying at the time.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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