Thousands of people joined anti-migrant protests in South Africa on Tuesday, watched over by a massive police contingent that was deployed to prevent violence and intimidation.
The demonstrations in Johannesburg, Pretoria, the port cities of Durban and Cape Town, and other towns were called by an organization known as March and March to demand that all foreign nationals?lacking the proper documents leave the country. The rallies, which marked the culmination of weeks of protests that have displaced thousands of mainly African expatriates, were mostly peaceful save for a few isolated incidents.
The protests have stoked fears of xenophobic violence on a scale that erupted in South Africa in 2008, when 62 people were killed and more than 50,000 others were forced to flee their homes in a wave of attacks. Five years ago on July 21, 354 people died in riots in the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces ¡ª the two biggest contributors to national economic output ¡ª after protests over the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.
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