Ca y est, c'est fait, la boucle est bouclée, la vérité est constituée, elle est claire, elle est close: les violences xénophobes meurtrières qui secouent l'Afrique du Sud depuis une semaine, dans lesquelles des dizaines de personnes ont trouvé la mort et qui en ont fait fuir des milliers, ont été fomentées, elles s'inscrivent dans une menace, un stratagème de renversement du régime dont les instigateurs sont des agents subversifs téléguidés par le fantôme de l'Apartheid. Ci-dessous l'article du
IHT en ligne de ce jour
South Africa's security chief on Friday accused rightists linked to the former apartheid government of fanning violence against foreigners that has spread to Cape Town, the country's second-largest city and its tourist center.
At least 42 people have been killed and more than 25,000 driven from their homes in 12 days of attacks by mobs who have stabbed, clubbed and burned migrants from other parts of Africa whom they accuse of taking jobs and fueling crime.
The South African government has come under strong criticism for its slow reaction to the violence, which started in a Johannesburg township on May 11, and for not adequately addressing poverty widely blamed for the bloodshed.
But Manala Manzini, head of the National Intelligence Agency, said that
people linked to the apartheid-era security forces were stoking the violence.
"Definitely there is a third hand involved. There is a deliberate effort, orchestrated, well-planned," he said.
"We have information to the effect that elements that were involved in the pre-1994 election violence are in fact the same elements that have re-started contacts with people that they used in the past."
Manzini said some of the violence had emanated from worker hostels where Zulu migrants traditionally live.
Much of the township bloodshed in the final years of apartheid involved brutal clashes between supporters of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress, which has been in power since the end of white rule.
Inkatha fighters were widely believed to have been clandestinely sponsored by the apartheid government.
"We don't want to blame the IFP for this," Manzini said, but, he added, "some of their people might be used."
The police and prosecuting office said they would work together to speed up cases linked to the violence, while the Justice Department was considering the establishment of special courts to deal with suspects.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka apologized to those caught up in the violence while on a visit to Nigeria, one of the countries whose citizens are threatened.
"The violence is regrettable and shocking," she said before meeting Vice President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.
"I want to apologize to those who have been affected and want to give the assurance that those who are responsible will be dealt with by the law," she said.
The police said mobs had attacked Somalis and Zimbabweans overnight in Cape Town and looted their homes and shops. More shops were looted in Lwandle township near Strand, north of Cape Town, and Knysna, a resort town on the southwest coast. Hundreds of migrants were evacuated from a squatter camp near Cape Town, hub of the tourist industry.
"We don't know the exact number of shops looted and burned, but it's a lot," said Billy Jones, senior superintendent with the Western Cape provincial police. He added that a Somali had died but that it was unclear whether the death had been linked to the attacks.
The authorities said that a Malawian man had been shot in Durban overnight and that three other foreigners had been stabbed in North West Province.
Mozambique said nearly 13,000 migrants and their families had left South Africa since the violence broke out, while Malawi said it had begun evacuating more than 850 of its citizens.
There are an estimated three million migrants fleeing Zimbabwe's economic collapse, making them the biggest group among about five million immigrants in a country of 50 million people.
After more than a week of sporadic anti-immigrant violence in Johannesburg, thousands of frightened immigrants are trying to return to their home countries.