A privately-owned Zambian radio station has stopped playing South African music in protest against the xenophobic attacks.
"Radio QFM has blacked out the playing of South African
music effective April 17, in protest against xenophobic attacks on
foreign nationals taking place in that country," QFM managing director
Asan Nyama said in a statement posted on the station's website.
Nyama
said the move to black out South African music indefinitely was in
solidarity with Africans who have fallen victim to xenophobic attacks in
Durban.
He said considering that QFM had a listenership
not only in Zambia but across the world, the station felt duty bound to
voice its protest at the attacks by stopping the air play of their
music.
He said considering it was not the first time
foreign nationals were being targeted in xenophobic attacks in SA, there
was a need to send a clear message to South Africans that violence on
fellow Africans negated African unity.
Meanwhile, the UN
refugee agency said at the weekend: "In South Africa,xenophobic attacks
over the last three weeks have ... displaced over 5000 foreign
nationals." It said it was "extremely concerned".
"We
would like to underscore that those affected in these xenophobic attacks
are refugees and asylum seekers who were forced to leave their
countries due to war and persecution."
Neighbouring Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique announced plans to evacuate their citizens, as the violence drew regional outrage.
South
African singer Kelly Khumalo was forced to postpone performances in
London because of outrage, while kwaito group Big Nuz had to cancel a
concert in Zimbabwe, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said on
Friday.
The anger in neighbouring countries was
exacerbated by the fact that they hosted thousands of South African
exiles during the struggle against apartheid - a point that President
Jacob Zuma raised in a speech to parliament Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment