Football fans gathered at the Johannesburg Stadium on Sunday, July 25 for a football match aimed at promoting peace between South Africans and foreign nationals.
Dubbed the "Ubuntu" or brotherhood Derby, the match saw local South African team Jomo Cosmos take on Zimbabwe's Highlanders.
It was organised by civil rights group Southern Africa Women's Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA) and other non-government groups after reports of xenophobic attacks in Cape Town and Johannesburg in which Zimbabweans, Malawians, Somalis and Mozambicans were targeted.
SAWIMA's Director, Joyce Dube said the sport has a unique ability to promote unity.
"We have tried a lot of activities, workshops, dialogues, flyers, educating the people but people didn't even listen to it because in 2008 we saw the break of these xenophobic attacks whilst people were busy being educated - then we decided to use sports, football," she said.
South Africa's liberal immigration and refugee policies have made it a haven for Africans looking for work in the country's mines, farms and homes, where they battle for jobs in the country with 25 percent unemployment.
The number of migrants is estimated to be about five million, almost equal to the white population in a total population of about 49 million.
In May 2008 xenophobic violence that started in Johannesburg spread across the country, killing 62 and displacing about 100,000 others.
Sixteen years after white minority rule ended, millions of poor blacks in South Africa are still living in desperate poverty and the government conceded that inadequate living conditions provoked them to turn on their African neighbours.
Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, which shelters thousands of homeless Zimbabweans, said he hoped the match could bridge the gap between foreigners and South Africans.
"What I hope is that we are planting seeds. They have potential to grow and hopefully friendship and respect and dignity will come out of this" he said.
Wisdom Kumbo, a Zimbabwean national who has lived in Johannesburg for the past five years, attended the match and expressed optimism that the initiative could work.
"I think it's gonna stop xenophobia, give red to xenophobia," he said. Proceeds from the football match will go to the Central Methodist Church and other programmes dealing with the repatriation of foreigners.
LOGIN
New Nigerian Newspaper
