NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As a wave of xenophobic violence continues rippling across South Africa, the country’s national church council is urging its members to open their doors for the resulting humanitarian emergencies and for dialogue.
For months, vigilante groups, sometimes armed with clubs, whips, knives and spears and singing South African patriotic songs, have been attacking foreign nationals, especially Black African migrants. Coordinating and encouraging protests, a South African anti-illegal immigration group called March and March issued a June 30 “deadline” for all undocumented people to flee the country.
The violence has resulted in at least 12 deaths, widespread destruction of foreign-owned businesses and homes and thousands of migrants fleeing South Africa or seeking shelter in community centers, mosques, churches and police stations, according to the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a June 14 post on X. Some are even fleeing into forests and the mountains.
“I write to you with a great sense of urgency and appeal for a compassionate heart,” said Archbishop Sithembele Sipuka, the president of the South African Council of Churches and the Catholic archbishop of Cape Town, in a June 9 pastoral letter to the council’s denominations titled, “Do not turn away the stranger.”
“Across our land … a wave of hostility, intimidation and violence has risen against our brothers and sisters from other cou …