Durban - Police minister Nathi Nhleko will launch a campaign on Sunday to battle the recent wave of violent attacks against foreign nationals in the country.
Nhleko is due to launch the Campaign Against Afrophobia at the Hilton in Durban at 14:00 on Sunday.
The campaign is a response aimed at achieving ‘behavioural change’, and includes other civic organisations, police spokesperson Musa Zondi said in a statement.
“Its objectives are to combat Afrophobia through celebrating diversity and embracing difference; creating a new generation of Africans free of Afrophobia and to develop empathy through public education.”
The campaign will be championed by the Civillian Secretariat for Police.
March planned
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa, meanwhile, will also host a series of marches on Sunday at different churches across its denomination.
A planed march will be held from Bethesda Methodist Church in Berea to Yeoville in Johannesburg from 11:00-13:00.
“The Methodist Church has once again opened its doors to help those bearing the brunt of the on-going violence,” a spokesperson for the church said in a statement on Saturday night.
“Unity, healing and transformation are values that the Methodist Church of Southern Africa holds dear, hence our unequivocal condemnation of the ongoing attacks on foreign nationals.”
The Methodist Church also accommodated hundreds of immigrants during the 2008 xenophobic attacks.
“The church is grateful for all the donations that have poured in from well-wishers,” the statement concluded.