Zanu-PF has called for the immediate stop to xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa saying the continued violence makes a mockery of the persistent calls for unity in the SADC region.
This call came amid growing calls for the South African government to act decisively in the spirit of African solidarity or risk being alienated from the regional groupings, Sadc and African Union (AU) for being complicit in the killings of foreigners, most of them economic and political refugees.
President Robert Mugabe chairs both Sadc and the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government.
Millions of foreigners were in danger with at least nine, among them two Zimbabweans, having been killed in the attacks in the neighboring country in the last few days.
In a statement, Zanu-PF national spokesperson Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo said the xenophobic attacks should be stopped forthwith.
He added that the escalating xenophobic attacks were an anti-thesis of the current good relations existing between Zimbabwe and South Africa which were further cemented by recent successful signing of various economic agreements by the two countries.
He said South Africa has an obligation according to the Vienna Declaration to ensure that it protect the lives of all foreign nationals.
Hundreds of Harare residents from across the political and social divides mobilised to demonstrate at the South African embassy in the capital yesterday, but the protests were cancelled by police who claimed they were busy preparing for the Independence Day celebrations.
South Africans however marched in the streets of Durban yesterday to condemn the attacks that have been unleashed on fellow Africans making a living in South Africa.
