2008 xenophobic attacks orchestrated – Mbeki

Former SA President Thabo Mbeki has suggested the deadly 2008 xenophobic attacks in Alexandra were part of a planned operation to drive Zimbabweans back home to vote out Robert Mugabe. Mbeki made the startling revelations on Wednesday during a conversation with students at the University of SA, in Pretoria. EWN reports that he said there was an intelligence report which he was privy to as President at the time, that lists the people and the motives behind the attacks. In March 2008, Zimbabwe held its general elections. After Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe failed to get a 50% majority, a run-off election was announced to take place in June. The previous month, a wave of xenophobic attacks flared up in Alexandra and later spread to different parts of the country. ‘An intelligence report with names, dates and venues where people met and planned this and so on... It's presented as a xenophobic attack by the people of Alexandra – it was wrong... it was organised, systematic, for a political purpose. I'm seeing the mistake we made, we should have declassified that intelligence report,’ he said.

Full EWN report