By Hassan Isilow
JOHANNESBURG
Thousands of people on Thursday marched through the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, to protest recent anti-immigrant attacks that have killed at least seven people.
"I marched all that distance because I wanted to send a message to those attacking foreigners to stop," Lerato Posha, a South African citizen, told The Anadolu Agency at Johannesburg's Newtown Square.
She said South Africans needed to understand that African countries had helped them during their struggle against apartheid.
"We are all one," she said. "This is not what Nelson Mandela had fought for."
Many rally participants, estimated at some 30,000, were seen carrying placards denouncing the recent spate of anti-immigrant attacks.
Some placards read "No to Xenophobia" and "We are all human."
Schoolchildren also joined the protest.
In recent weeks, South Africa has seen mounting anti-immigrant violence that has mostly targeted migrants from other African countries.
The violence began earlier this month in Durban, where mobs descended on the homes and shops of a number of foreign migrants.
The victims were accused of stealing jobs from native South Africans, committing crimes, and putting a burden on the country's social services.
At least seven people have been killed so far in the violence, which has since spread to parts of Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city.
The violence has forced scores of migrants from Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and other African countries to leave South Africa.
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Several government officials, including Gauteng Premier David Makura and religious leaders, are expected to address the crowd.
"Let us unite against xenophobia," Zwelinzima Vavi, former secretary-general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), told thousands of demonstrators at Newtown Square.
"South Africans are not xenophobic; just a few people were causing the trouble," he asserted.
Supporters of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) carried placards reading, "Not in our name" and "We are all Africans."
Several African migrants joined the rally, waving the flags of their respective countries and singing in unison.
"Unite, Africa, Unite" and, "We are all one," one group of Zimbabwean migrants could be heard singing while marching to the rally venue, which saw a heavy police presence.
Some claim there are as many as 5 million foreign migrants in the country, including 3 million Zimbabweans.
But according to the African Institute for Migration and Society (formerly known as the Forced Migration Studies program), there are between 1.6 and 2 million documented and undocumented migrants living in South Africa.
Most of these are accounted for by migrants from Southern African Development Community (SADC) states, especially Zimbabwe.
