At least 300 people gathered for an anti-immigration march in the South African capital Pretoria on Friday, as President Jacob Zuma condemned xenophobic violence that has targeted shops and homes.

Tyres were burnt in streets near Pretoria in the morning, as tensions rise between some South Africans and migrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Shops and homes owned by foreigners have been looted and torched in recent weeks, with some locals alleging that the properties were brothels and drug dens.

Zuma called for restraint, saying in a statement that there had been "threats of violence and acts of intimidation and destruction of property directed at non-nationals."

"Residents in some communities blame non-nationals for the escalating crimes especially drug trafficking," the presidency said.

He called for South Africans not to blame migrants for the country's widespread crime problems, but said the government would crack down on drug-dealing and illegal immigrants.

The violence prompted Nigeria to summon South Africa's top envoy to Abuja on Thursday to raise its concerns.

Attacks against foreigners have erupted regularly in recent years in South Africa, fuelled by the country's high unemployment and poverty levels.

In the last week, more than 20 shops have been targeted in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria, while residents in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, attacked at least 12 houses.

"We have decided to not to leave the house (during the anti-migrant march)," Alain Bome, 47, from Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been in South Africa for 14 years, told AFP.

"We know very well there have been attacks. We are scared because we know South Africans."

In 2008, South Africa experienced its worst bout of xenophobic violence, which left 62 people dead.

In 2015, at least seven people died in similar unrest in Johannesburg and the Indian Ocean city of Durban as African immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs. </s> Mujahid Safodien, AFP | File photo of South African security officials and migrants in Johannesburg on May 8, 2015.

South African police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to break up clashes between local protesters and migrants in Pretoria on Friday at a march against immigration.

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Shops and homes owned by foreigners have been looted and torched in recent weeks, with some South Africans alleging that the properties were brothels and drug dens.

Attacks against foreigners have erupted regularly in recent years, fuelled by South Africa's high unemployment and poverty levels.

Police in Pretoria formed lines to keep apart 500 protesters as tensions rise between some South Africans and migrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Pakistan and elsewhere.

"We are fed up with people bringing drugs to the youth and the crimes that go with it," said a South African marcher who declined to be named.

As the stand-off continued, Clement Melfort, 26, a migrant from Zimbabwe who had come to see the march told AFP: "We are not afraid of fighting."

President Jacob Zuma condemned the latest wave of xenophobic unrest, saying that there had been "threats of violence and acts of intimidation and destruction of property directed at non-nationals."

"Residents in some communities blame non-nationals for the escalating crimes especially drug trafficking," the presidency said in a statement on Friday.

Zuma called for South Africans not to blame migrants for the country's widespread crime problems, but said the government would crack down on drug-dealing and illegal immigrants.

'We are scared'

In the last week, more than 20 shops have been targeted in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria, while residents in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, attacked at least 12 houses.

"We have decided to not to leave the house (during the march)," Alain Bome, a 47-year-old from Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been in South Africa for 14 years, told AFP.

"We know very well there have been attacks. We are scared."

In 2008, South Africa experienced its worst bout of xenophobic violence, which left 62 people dead.

The Nigerian government this week called for the African Union to step in to stop "xenophobic attacks" on its citizens in South Africa, claiming 20 Nigerians were killed last year.

South African authorities dismiss such numbers, saying many violent deaths in the country are due to criminal activity rather than anti-immigrant sentiment.

In 2008, South Africa experienced its worst bout of xenophobic violence, which left 62 people dead.

In 2015, at least seven people died in similar unrest in Johannesburg and the Indian Ocean city of Durban as African immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs

(AFP) </s> South African police have used stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannon to try to disperse anti-immigration protesters in the capital, Pretoria, and keep them from foreign nationals who had gathered to express alarm about recent attacks.

A police official said 136 people had been arrested in the past 24 hours.

Resentment against foreign nationals has sometimes turned deadly amid accusations that they take jobs from locals in a country where unemployment is more than 25%. Others are blamed for drug-dealing and other crimes.

In 2015, anti-immigrant riots in and around the city of Durban left at least six people dead. About 60 people were killed in similar violence seven years earlier.

On Friday protesters in Pretoria marched towards the foreign ministry, some carrying sticks or pipes. A petition was handed to the ministry in which they suggested the government teach immigrants to “speak properly”. The petition added: “They are arrogant and they don’t know how to talk to people, especially Nigerians,.”

The Nelson Mandela Foundation criticised authorities for “giving permission for a march of hatred”.

“We don’t have hate! We don’t have hate!” one foreign national was recorded as shouting in a video posted by local broadcaster eNCA.

A statement issued by President Jacob Zuma’s office said South Africans should not blame all crime on foreign nationals. It cited recent reports of violence in Pretoria and hate speech on social media.

“Many citizens of other countries living in South Africa are law abiding and contribute to the economy of the country positively,” Zuma said. “It is wrong to brandish all non-nationals as drug dealers or human traffickers.”

Amnesty International accused the authorities of failing to “address toxic populist rhetoric that blames and scapegoats refugees and migrants”.

Zuma said South Africans were not xenophobic, and he called on everyone, citizens and non-citizens, to work together to combat the high crime rate.

The periodic backlash against foreign nationals has hurt the tolerant image the country has tried to present since the end of apartheid almost a quarter of a century ago.

Despite high unemployment, South Africa is one of Africa’s largest economies and remains a draw for people across the continent. Businesses run by Somalis, Ethiopians and others are often targeted in anti-foreigner protests.

Amid the anti-immigrant sentiment, government data shows the number of foreign-born people in South Africa has declined. A report (pdf) last year said the number of foreign-born people fell from 2.2 million in 2011 to 1.6m. South Africa has a population of more than 55 million.

Zuma’s statement on Friday acknowledged complaints about companies that hire what it described as “illegal immigrants”, saying the foreign office would crack down on all employers who “continue with this practice, which is dangerous as it pits locals against non-nationals”. </s> Tensions over immigration erupted into violence in Pretoria, South Africa, this week. Reporter Peter Granitz says foreigners are scapegoats for those who are actually upset with the government. </s> Thousands of protesters are marching across cities in South Africa calling for President Jacob Zuma to be removed.

The action is taking place after Mr Zuma’s dismissal of the country’s finance minister fuelled concerns over government corruption – and a struggling economy.

Protesters are currently marching in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and other big metropolitan areas to push for the resignation of scandal-hit Mr Zuma.

The president currently retains the support of a ruling party facing an internal revolt against the president.

A march organised by the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s biggest opposition party, was expected to pass near the headquarters of the ruling African National Congress in Johannesburg.

ANC members in military uniforms who oppose the protest were posted outside.

The government appealed for calm and said it respects the right of South Africans to protest peacefully.

Earlier today, Fitch Ratings announced the downgrade of South Africa to ‘junk status’ – meaning the likelihood of debt that is in foreign currency being repaid is very low.

Pravin Gordhan, who was fired as finance minister in a late-night cabinet reshuffle a week ago, was widely respected for his anti-corruption stance.

The Standard & Poor’s agency lowered South Africa’s foreign currency credit rating after the dismissal, citing political instability and threats to economic growth.

Mr Gordhan was seen as a counter to the alleged influence of the Gupta family, Indian immigrant businessmen who have been accused of trying to influence some of Mr Zuma’s cabinet picks.

Mr Zuma has said there was nothing improper in the way he chose ministers. </s> (AP Photo/Don Ryan). In this Wednesday, June 27, 2018, photo, Kate Sharaf, who is spearheading a small group of stay-at-home mothers to organize an immigration rally, gestures to other volunteers while working at home in Portland, Ore. The small group ...

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer). Protesters chant slogans outside a Federal court during a demonstration calling for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and demand changes in U.S. immigration policies, Friday, June 29, 2018, in New...

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer). Protesters chant slogans as they march during a demonstration calling for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and demand changes in U.S. immigration policies, Friday, June 29, 2018, in New York.

(AP Photo/Don Ryan). In this Wednesday, June 27, 2018, photo, a small group of stay-at-home mothers, with children at their sides, work to organize an immigration rally in Portland, Ore. The small group of mothers organizing Saturday's rally in Portlan...

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer). Protesters chant slogans outside a Federal court during a demonstration calling for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and demand changes in U.S. immigration policies, Friday, June 29, 2018, in New...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Liberal activists, parents and first-time protesters motivated by accounts of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border plan to rally in hundreds of cities nationwide Saturday to press President Donald Trump's administration to reunite the families quickly.

More than 600 marches could draw hundreds of thousands of people across the country, from immigrant-friendly cities like Los Angeles and New York City to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming under the banner Families Belong Together.

Though many who show up will be seasoned anti-Trump demonstrators, others will be new to immigration activism, including parents who say they feel compelled to show up after heart-wrenching accounts of children forcibly taken from their families as they crossed the border illegally. In Portland, Oregon, for example, several stay-at-home moms have organized their first rally while caring for young kids.

"I'm not a radical, and I'm not an activist," said Kate Sharaf, a Portland co-organizer. "I just reached a point where I felt I had to do more."

Immigrant advocacy groups say they're thrilled - and surprised - to see the issue gaining traction among those not tied to immigration.

"Honestly, I am blown away. I have literally never seen Americans show up for immigrants like this," said Jess Morales Rocketto, political director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which represents nannies, housekeepers and caregivers, many of whom are immigrants. "We just kept hearing over and over again, if it was my child, I would want someone to do something."

Saturday's rallies are getting funding and support from the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn.org, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and The Leadership Conference. But local organizers are shouldering on-the-ground planning, many of them women relying on informal networks established during worldwide women's marches on Trump's inauguration and its anniversary.

Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, welcomed interest in the immigration system and said only Congress has the power to change the law.

"We appreciate that these individuals have expressed an interest in and concern with the critical issue of securing our nation's borders and enforcing our immigration laws," Houlton said. "As we have indicated before, the department is disappointed and frustrated by our nation's disastrous immigration laws and supports action."

In Portland, Sharaf and other mothers who organized the rally hope to attract 5,000 people.

Right-wing activists with the group Patriot Prayer also have a permit to march later in the day Saturday and the Portland Police Bureau said Friday they planned to have a heavy police presence.

Sharaf and co-organizer Erin Conroy have coordinated with immigrant advocacy groups.

"This is not my wheelhouse," Conroy said. "As far as I'm concerned, this is a national emergency that we all need to be focused on right now."

That passion is heartening for the broader anti-Trump coalition, which hopes marches will attract people who have otherwise been on the sidelines, said David S. Meyer, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, who has authored books on U.S. political protest.

"There are people who have all kinds of other grievances or gripes with the Trump administration and they're quite happy to use this one as the most productive and salient for the moment," he said.

Immigration attorney Linda Rivas said groups have met with U.S. authorities, congressional representatives and other leaders to discuss an escalating immigration crackdown that they say began decades ago. But the family separation policy has been a watershed for attracting a broader spectrum of demonstrators, she said.

"To finally have people on board wanting to take action, marching, taking to the streets, it's been motivating for us as advocates because we have to keep going," Rivas said.

Taxin reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporter Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report. Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus. Follow Taxin on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ataxin

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> GROUP of furious youths demonstrated yesterday in Abuja against attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

Their protest raised the tension between the two countries over xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.

Many Nigerians have lost properties and others have been killed in the past.

The protesters stormed the office of mobile giant MTN.

MTN is the biggest South African company in Nigeria. They stole customers’ phones, vandalised equipment and attacked customers, a spokesman for MTN said.

“They forcibly entered the MTN office. Security men were around but unable to curtail the protesters, who forced the gates open and entered the office,” a witness said.

“Some protesters were touts. Some were students. In their midst were some criminals that took away some customers’ phones and other things,” he added, asking not to be named.

A South African government source described the attack as serious. “This wasn’t just some people on the street throwing stones. They broke into the building and stole things and broke things,” the source said.

The incident coincided with a visit by MTN chairman Phuthuma Nhleko to Abuja to see acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

This week, at least 20 shops believed to belong to immigrants were looted in South Africa’s capital. Police refused to say if the attackers were specifically targeting foreigners.

“Currently, in 2017, there are renewed incidents of violence against foreign national in Rosettenville and Pretoria West,” Gigaba told a media briefing.

“Unfortunately, xenophobic violence is not new in South Africa,” he said, recounting similar incidents in the past.

The minister said some residents in Pretoria have planned a march on Friday against immigrants, citing competition for jobs and allegations of criminal activity, such as prostitution and drug dealing in the poor township west of Pretoria.

The South African government is also driving against illegal foreign workers.

South African officials will inspect workplaces to see if firms are employing undocumented foreigners, the home affairs minister says.

A official, Malusi Gigaba, said more than 60 employees of retail chain Spar “without documentation” had been arrested.

Mr Gigaba warned that firms would be “penalised” if they breached the law, and said they should not fuel tensions by “playing locals against foreigners”.

Many unemployed South Africans accuse foreigners of taking their jobs.

South Africa’s foreign affairs department dismissed claims that Nigerian nationals were targets of xenophobic violence.

Spokesperson Clayson Monyela said the attacks were nothing more than sporadic criminal incidents. The government also said inflammatory social media statements by South Africans and foreign nationals against each other were unnecessary.

In his budget speech on Wednesday, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that 35% of the labour force was unemployed or had given up looking for work.

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has given 48 hours ultimatum to all South African companies in Nigeria to relocate over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

The students gave the ultimatum at a peaceful demonstration at some South African companies in Abuja yesterday.

During the march the students carried a banner, which read: ‘’NANS Against Xenophobic Attacks on Nigerians.’’

While the students marched, security men stood and watched to ensure law and order.

The President of NANS, Mr Kadiri Aruna, said in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at DSTV office, a South African company, in Wuse 2, Abuja, that Nigerian students had resolved to condemn the attacks.

“We are saying that enough is enough as South Africans have openly attacked and bullied Nigerians.’’

Aruna said that the protest would also serve as a warning to other countries trying to underrate Nigerians.

He stressed that the poor treatment being meted out to Nigerians was particularly insulting, given the role Nigeria played in ending the apartheid regime in South Africa.

“Nigeria contributed 80 per cent of the freedom the South Africans are enjoying today because we saved them from the jaws of apartheid.

“Who is South Africa to humiliate Nigeria? So they forget things so soon, let them go back to history and records to see how much financial assistance and what the country did to save them,’’ he said.

The union president said that the situation was inhuman and for this reason all reasonable Nigerians must react.

“In science they say you use malaria to cure malaria, now you use madness to cure their madness, and that is why we are advising them to leave Nigerian soil before 48 hours.’’

He said that the Federal Government should not wait till the dying minute before evacuating Nigerians from South Africa.

Aruna said it was time for government not to only condemn the attacks but take a firm stand by summoning South Africa’s high commissioner and if possible cut diplomatic ties with that country.

“Government should take extra-diplomatic measures in dealing with the latest deadly assaults because if nothing drastic is done it will become a regular occurrence.

“This is the time to place South Africa where it belongs,’’ he said.

He said that the last time the xenophobic attack happened nothing was done, no action was taken and no arrest was made and that was why South Africans repeated the attacks.

Aruna said it was so unfortunate that during the attacks the South African Government refused to take up its responsibility of securing Nigerians and their properties.

“The government of South Africa is criminally quiet and they say silence is consent, and their police are folding their hands while they are killing Nigerians, this is conspiracy, enough is enough,’’ he said.

He said the peaceful rally would continue and spread across the country. </s> Protesters have marched in cities across South Africa including Cape Town, Durban, and the capital, Pretoria calling for the removal of President Jacob Zuma.

The demonstrations came after Mr Zuma’s sacking of a respected finance minister, which led to the country’s credit rating being cut to junk status.

The move added pressure to South Africa’s already embattled economy.

But supporters of Mr Zuma also turned out to defend the president.

This week Mr Zuma survived calls by powerful groups allied to the governing ANC for him to go. He also got the backing of a major decision-making body within the party.

He is not due to leave office until 2019 when his second five-year term comes to an end.

One of the immediate sources of controversy was last week’s cabinet reshuffle which saw the removal of, among others, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

In Johannesburg, there was a heavy police presence as protesters planned to converge near the ANC headquarters.

Hundreds of veterans of the ANC’s armed anti-apartheid struggle and members of the ruling party’s youth wing also gathered outside its headquarters at Luthuli House to protect the building.

Supporters of Mr Zuma told the BBC’s Milton Nkosi that they came out to promote the president’s policies. They said that Mr Zuma was promising radical socio-economic change.

One supporter said that it would be wrong to force regime change in South Africa, adding that such a move would be “going back to the dark ages of apartheid”.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters in one part of Johannesburg, local media are reporting.

Crowds later gathered outside a compound belonging to the wealthy Gupta family, which has ties to the president, in Johannesburg’s affluent Saxonwold suburb.

Pictures shared on social media on Friday showed large crowds assembling in Church Square in Pretoria, despite confusion over whether demonstrations in the capital are permitted by law.

Police said on Thursday that marches in Pretoria were illegal because they had not been granted permission by city authorities. But this was later overturned by a magistrate.

Protesters in the capital later marched to the seat of government, the Union Buildings, waving placards that read: “South Africa is not for sale.”

The BBC’s Karen Allen, in Pretoria, said that despite a heavy police presence, the protest there went ahead peacefully.

In Durban, banners stating “Jacob Zuma must step down” were draped from buildings as part of nationwide demonstrations. Protesters marched through the city with their faces painted, carrying messages of “downgrade Zuma, not South Africa” in reference to the country’s amended credit rating.

The government, which has appealed for peace during the countrywide protests, tweeted that the laws in South Africa are also there to “protect the right of those who would not like to participate in protest action”.

Earlier this week, a major decision-making body within the ruling ANC party discarded a complaint against Mr Zuma that he had failed to consult executives before reshuffling his cabinet.

The move to drop the finance minister angered both Mr Zuma’s opponents and allies, causing a rift in the ruling ANC party, which has governed South Africa since 1994.

It left some in the ANC leadership questioning whether Mr Zuma should remain as president.

Key ANC allies, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the main trades union federation Cosatu, joined in the calls for him to go.

But the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), discussing the cabinet reshuffle, later gave the president its backing.

Mr Zuma has been described in local media as the Teflon Don because of his survival skills following the acceptance of his explanation for his controversial sacking of the finance minister. </s> PORTLAND, Ore. -- Liberal activists, parents and first-time protesters motivated by accounts of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border plan to rally in hundreds of cities nationwide Saturday to press President Trump's administration to reunite the families quickly. More than 600 marches could draw hundreds of thousands of people across the country, from immigrant-friendly cities like Los Angeles and New York City to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming under the banner Families Belong Together.

Though many who show up will be seasoned anti-Trump demonstrators, others will be new to immigration activism, including parents who say they feel compelled to show up after heart-wrenching accounts of children forcibly taken from their families as they crossed the border illegally. In Portland, Oregon, for example, several stay-at-home moms have organized their first rally while caring for young kids.

"I'm not a radical, and I'm not an activist," said Kate Sharaf, a Portland co-organizer. "I just reached a point where I felt I had to do more."

Immigrant advocacy groups say they're thrilled -- and surprised -- to see the issue gaining traction among those not tied to immigration.

"Honestly, I am blown away. I have literally never seen Americans show up for immigrants like this," said Jess Morales Rocketto, political director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which represents nannies, housekeepers and caregivers, many of whom are immigrants. "We just kept hearing over and over again, if it was my child, I would want someone to do something."

Saturday's rallies are getting funding and support from the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn.org, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and The Leadership Conference. But local organizers are shouldering on-the-ground planning, many of them women relying on informal networks established during worldwide women's marches on Mr. Trump's inauguration and its anniversary.

Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, welcomed interest in the immigration system and said only Congress has the power to change the law.

"We appreciate that these individuals have expressed an interest in and concern with the critical issue of securing our nation's borders and enforcing our immigration laws," Houlton said. "As we have indicated before, the department is disappointed and frustrated by our nation's disastrous immigration laws and supports action."

In Portland, Sharaf and other mothers who organized the rally hope to attract 5,000 people.

Right-wing activists with the group Patriot Prayer also have a permit to march later in the day Saturday and the Portland Police Bureau said Friday they planned to have a heavy police presence.

Sharaf and co-organizer Erin Conroy have coordinated with immigrant advocacy groups.

"This is not my wheelhouse," Conroy said. "As far as I'm concerned, this is a national emergency that we all need to be focused on right now."

That passion is heartening for the broader anti-Trump coalition, which hopes marches will attract people who have otherwise been on the sidelines, said David S. Meyer, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, who has authored books on U.S. political protest.

"There are people who have all kinds of other grievances or gripes with the Trump administration and they're quite happy to use this one as the most productive and salient for the moment," he said.

Immigration attorney Linda Rivas said groups have met with U.S. authorities, congressional representatives and other leaders to discuss an escalating immigration crackdown that they say began decades ago. But the family separation policy has been a watershed for attracting a broader spectrum of demonstrators, she said.

"To finally have people on board wanting to take action, marching, taking to the streets, it's been motivating for us as advocates because we have to keep going," Rivas said.

On Thursday, more than a thousand people and organizations including the ACLU, the ACLU of Texas and United We Dream gathered in Texas to demand that separated families be immediately reunited, the ACLU said in a news release. They gathered in Brownsville, which according to the ACLU is one of the "hardest hit" areas under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy.

"The administration doesn't have a plan to reunite families. But we have a plan," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. "We are going to keep fighting. Refugees are welcome here, immigrants are welcome here. We won't stop until every single child is reunited."
Protesters in South Africa rally against immigration.