Immigrants attacked in protest over housing, jobs

(19 May 2008) SHOTLIST Leondale, East Rand, east of Johannesburg 1. Wide of immigrants sitting in open fields in squatter camp 2. Various, women and children 3. Wide of burnt shacks 4. Wide of immigrants sitting outside shacks 5. Close of children sitting 6. People carrying mattress Reiger Park, East Rand, east of Johannesburg 6. Helicopter above burning shacks 7. Wreckage of shacks Germiston, East Rand, east of Johannesburg 8. Pan of immigrants in city centre 9. Mid of man wearing jacket with slogan reading 'counter xenophobia unit' 10. Red Cross people preparing bandages 11. Various of Red Cross worker bandaging child 12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox Pop (no name given), Zimbabwean: "Initially we came here for safety reasons, but otherwise the people think otherwise. That's why they are attacking these foreigners. It seems like it is a political thing now. If the government does not have the answer to why there is this unemployment fast going high and so forth, then it seems as if it's the song of every government that if there is a problem they find a scapegoat. We have seen it even in Zimbabwe. It's been Blair, Bush these other countries, they are to blame for all the failures." 13. Child drinking from bottle STORYLINE: Clashes pitting the poorest of the poor against one another have killed 22 people in South Africa and underscored bitter frustration with the government's failure to deliver enough jobs, housing and schools. Police brought in reinforcements as violence spread from shanty town to shanty town in scenes reminiscent of some of the bloodiest days of apartheid, with most of the victims foreigners in squatter camps. South Africans are struggling to buy food as prices rise amid stubbornly high unemployment, and many complain the government hasn't worked fast enough to build houses, schools and hospitals for the long-neglected black majority. Foreigners, many of them Zimbabweans who had fled economic collapse and political violence in their homeland, were being driven from shacks in squatter camps on Monday. Men bearing clubs and sticks patrolled in groups along the road near one camp, apparently South Africans guarding against any foreigners trying to return. Police patrolled with helicopters and armoured vehicles in the East Rand, a suburb east of Johannesburg. The trouble was said to have started slowly in Ramaphosa, a collection of shacks among the mine dumps and warehouses east of Johannesburg. A few foreigners were beaten on Friday. Shacks were set afire Saturday. When the killing started Sunday, many fled to the neighbouring community of Reiger Park. A police spokesman said 22 people had been killed since the violence broke out last week. The spokesman added that more than 200 people had been arrested on charges including murder, rape and robbery. Police reservists and officers from other regions were being called in to help. The South African Red Cross and other aid groups appealed for funds to care for the hundreds of displaced. The violence is likely to add to South Africa's image as a crime centre - it has a murder rate of more than 50 a day - just as it prepares to host visitors from around the world for the 2010 football World Cup. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...