Nov 17, 2009

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse a mob who attacked shacks belonging to 600 migrants, an incident reminiscent of 2008 xenophobic riots in which at least 42 people were killed.

Police in De Doorns, a town 150 km (90 miles) from Cape Town, said 600 foreigners, most of them Zimbabweans, had taken refuge in the local police station and government buildings.

There were no reports of injuries and no arrests were made.

"Police fired rubber bullets this morning because of the fact that people tried to dismantle shacks in De Doorns informal settlement area," station commander Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen told Reuters.

In 2008, a wave of xenophobic attacks in and around Johannesburg led to 15,000 migrants, most of them Zimbabweans, being forced into settlement camps. The violence also spread to Cape Town.

Van der Westhuizen said some of those in "Stofland", the largest squatter camp in the area, were unhappy about Zimbabweans taking jobs on nearby farms. He described the situation as "tense but under control".

A global economic downturn and the first recession in two decades have caused big job losses in Africa's largest economy. Unemployment is officially close to a quarter of the country's population of 49 million.

In May last year, a wave of xenophobic violence swept across South Africa, aimed mainly at the millions of Zimbabweans who fled their homeland in search of work and a better future.