Johannesburg - The attacks on foreigners in Johannesburg's Alexandra township is partly due to the inability of government to deal with these matters effectively, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday.
Human Rights Commission chief executive, advocate Tseliso Thipanyane, said government was aware of the number of illegal immigrants in the country.
Government needed to address poverty and needed to do more, to deal decisively with incidents of xenophobia.
He said these attacks had been occurring for the last ten years, and it was about time ways were found to deal more effectively with them.
Thomas Sithole from the Alexandra Community Policing Forum condemned the attacks and called on the community to allow the police to do their work.
He described the incidents of xenophobia as "purely criminal".
