South Africa braces for economic backlash from xenophobic attacks

 

A wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa could provoke reprisals from neighbouring countries, raising concerns among South African business leaders and officials that the violence against foreigners could further damage the weak economy.

Calls for a boycott of South African products have multiplied amid anger in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and elsewhere on the continent over their citizens being attacked by mobs in Johannesburg and Durban.

At least seven people have been killed in the violence and thousands of immigrants forced to flee their homes, making headline news around the world as soldiers were deployed to restore order in the impoverished townships.

“Since the start of the attacks, our country has lost billions of rands in export foreign revenue,” trade and industry Deputy Minister Mzwandile Masina said Wednesday, without giving further details.
Calling the situation “untenable,” he added that the government was “worried about the cost and the negative impact of the attacks on foreign nationals on the country’s image and its economy”.