Bartamaha (Nairobi):- Last time, they cut his face open with a panga and destroyed his shop, but Ibrahim Mursal said the mood is worse this year.

The Somali trader is one of more than 100 displaced foreigners seeking refuge at a camp site outside Wellington, north of Cape Town, following renewed xenophobic violence across Western Cape.

He and his friends said they would rather risk the war at home than the “war” in South Africa – but they can’t find a way back.

Also yesterday, at least 60 Zimbabweans were camped outside a truck-stop on the N1, just outside Cape Town, desperate for a lift back to Harare.

Amid brewing tension in several townships in and around Cape Town, local government officials and politicians raced to quell talk of a “second uprising” against foreigners after the World Cup.

Somalis, Ethiopians and Zimbabweans have been the main targets.

“The first time, I was in Mitchell’s Plain, but this is worse,” said Mursal, whose face bears witness to the first wave of xenophobic attacks two years ago in which at least 62 people were killed countrywide.

“. Now you even see coloured people [attacking]. Before it was only the blacks. Maybe now the whites are also coming,” he said.

But the police and community leaders yesterday remained adamant that security forces would not allow a repeat of the tragic events.

The army has already been deployed in some hot-spots, and civil society leaders are calling for the deployment of the police recruits deployed for the World Cup.

“Yes, we do have a situation on our hands,” confirmed Drakenstein Municipality’s Tommy Matthee.

“But what has happened here is not the result of the community, but of a few individuals acting in a criminal manner under the disguise of xenophobia. In the main, it is shops that have been looted.”

Matthee said his municipality had identified four hot-spots to which leaders would be sent to speak to residents.

He said three incidents were reported in the Silvertown area yesterday morning. There were several incidents on Sunday night in Phillipi and Langa, in Cape Town, and in Mbekweni, near Paarl.

Edgar Jennecke’s daughter was shot in the hand during the violence in Mbekweni – which means “respect” in Xhosa.

“They were plundering the containers … when the police arrived the shooting started. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

Matthee said the police had opened criminal cases against some of the looters.

The ANC added its voice yesterday. In a strongly worded statement, the party said: “Xenophobia is a crime against humanity and the perpetrators should be isolated.”

But several foreigners yesterday said the government was failing them on several fronts, including the slow pace of registering asylum seekers and lack of protection.

The temporary displacement camp at Antoniesvlei, between Wellington and Ceres, was without food yesterday afternoon.

“South Africa is a big government in Africa. They can bring a solution,” said Mursal.

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Source:-timeslive.

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