JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s government has withdrawn a directive on processing asylum applications after anti-immigrant protests turned violent in Durban and Johannesburg’s Soweto township, where at least 24 vehicles were set ablaze and foreign-owned shops were looted, police said, BBC News and DW reported.
Police said 14 vehicles were torched in Durban and 10 in Soweto, where gunshots were reported during confrontations between residents and foreign shopkeepers. In Durban, protesters gathered outside a government refugee reception center demanding that it stop accepting asylum applications, and police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds. The violence followed allegations that a foreign national had assaulted a protester; three foreign nationals were arrested. “At the present moment, I can confirm that no injuries have been reported,” police spokesman Xolani Fihla told the public broadcaster SABC.
The Department of Home Affairs said its staff had been “overwhelmed” under the current policy and that “serious threats to public safety and order had emerged,” but that its new approach would still comply with the Constitutional Court, the BBC reported. In July the court struck down restrictions that barred some people from seeking asylum because of how they entered the country or because they missed deadlines, prompting long queues at reception centers. Government spokesman William Baloyi told Reuters that false claims had spread that undocumented migrants would automatically be granted legal status.
South Africa has seen repeated outbreaks of xenophobic violence, often aimed at migrants from neighboring countries. Anti-immigrant groups this year demanded that undocumented foreigners leave by June 30, and tens of thousands of people have fled the country, DW said. Acting national police commissioner Lt. Gen. Puleng Dimpane condemned the destruction, and authorities promised to pursue those responsible.
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