'Business competition the cause of xenophobic attacks'
Attempts to drive away competition by foreign-owned businesses was the trigger of last year's xenophobic attacks in Kwa Zulu-Natal.
That's the finding of the Special Reference Group appointed by Premier Senzo Mchunu to establish the causes of the violence against foreigners that claimed seven lives.
The group chaired by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Judge Navi Pillay conducted interviews with humanitarian organisations, government departments, business and the general public between April and October last year.
Judge Pillay briefed the media at the Public Works Conference Centre in Durban earlier today.
Pillay says business competition led to last year's xenophobic attacks.
"The tensions we found were most evident in the informal trading sector where many of the perceptions of foreign national traders although largely unfounded contributed to heightened tensions.
"Although the violence only impacted directly on a few areas in the province - so really it was a very confined conflict - the vast majority of people who fled their homes did so out of fear of attacks rather than being victims of attack," she said.
(Photos: Khatija Nxedlana)