Comment Made "Immigrants should take their bags and go" Provokes Violence

A group of immigrants carrying machetes in a Johannesburg district began to dissipate as the South African police reportedly fired rubber bullets in the sky.

The clashes came after at least twelve people were arrested overnight for allegedly trying to break into "foreign-owned shops", according to police.

Protesters also set fire to cars and fought with police as they demanded workers from elsewhere in Africa and South Asia return home.

Dozens of foreigners sought refuge at a police station where they stayed overnight.            

In a speech to parliament broadcast on TV, President Jacob Zuma has called on South Africans to end the wave of anti-immigrant violence that began earlier this month and described the attacks as "shocking and unacceptable".

"No amount of frustration or anger can ever justify the attacks on foreign nationals and the looting of their shops," he said.

"We condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms - the attacks violate all the values that South Africa embodies."

Despite his pleas, hundreds of South Africans jeered and insulted demonstrators who had gathered for a peace march in the city of Durban after days of violence in which at least five people have been killed.

Over the past few days, more than 2,000 foreigners afraid to return home have fled to shelters put up on sports fields around the city after their shops were looted and burnt, according to aid organisation Gift of the Givers.

The US ambassador to South Africa, born in Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of the Congo - to Haitian parents, spoke in defence of the immigrants.

"As an immigrant to my own country, my heart goes out to those who have been attacked for being different," Patrick H. Gaspard said.

The violence started after Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini, who rules over one of the country's largest ethnic minorities, said immigrants should "take their bags and go".

In a recorded speech sent to a local broadcaster, he said: "We must deal with our own lice" and complained about foreign-owned shops.

South Africa's Human Rights Commission said it has received two complaints of hate speech levelled against the king.

Angry South Africans accuse immigrants of taking jobs in a country where unemployment and poverty levels are high - the official figure is 25% but economists say, in reality, it is much higher.

The population of South Africa is about 50m with an estimated five million immigrants. They come from African countries including Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, and from further afield, such as China and Pakistan.

Many own shops or sell goods informally on street corners or in markets.

The governments of Malawi and Zimbabwe are planning to repatriate affected citizens.

"Xenophobia today can easily mutate into genocide tomorrow. Stop It," tweeted Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, adding that the Zulu king should "extinguish what he ignited".