By Lorraine Kearney
Foreigners were targeted by King Goodwill Zwelithini at a dinner in Durban on Friday night when he said they contributed to poverty and unemployment in South Africa by "taking our jobs".
His remarks, on the eve of the World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held from August 31 to September 1, have been described as "unfortunate" by United Nations officials who are in Durban to attend the conference.
King Zwelithini also lashed out at people who employed immigrants instead of South Africans.
However, he tempered his comments by saying: "I don't hate foreigners."
The dinner, called University for a Night, was the debut dinner of the Ilimo Network, a provincial support forum for local corporate social responsibility practitioners.
Ilimo is a Zulu tradition of community support and sharing.
Guests at the dinner included academics, business people and members of the non-governmental organisation community.
Several said they were appalled by the king's remarks as they feared his words would lead to attacks on foreigners, many of whom had fled from their countries because they feared for their lives.
Xenophobia will be a key issue at the conference.
Leading figures have spoken out against xenophobia, pointing out other countries willingly sheltered and assisted members of the liberation movement who were forced to flee from the apartheid government.
At the weekend, a community forum organised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the KwaZulu-Natal Refugee Network and Roll Back Xenophobia was held in Umlazi to discuss xenophobia and its effect on refugees.
One of the speakers, former political exile Fana Msomi, said xenophobia existed worldwide but was at a higher degree in South Africa. This was caused by many factors, including unemployment.
"South Africans are fearful that the opportunities they now enjoy would be taken away by foreigners. The misconception of refugees taking our jobs is unfounded. Most of them do work we don't want to do, such as car-guarding. You hardly find them working at factories."
Jenny Parsley, the co-ordinator of Roll Back Xenophobia, said her organisation strongly disagreed with the king's sentiments.
"There seems to be no evidence that immigrants take jobs away from locals. Asylum-seekers, in any event, can work legally in South Africa."
However, she said many asylum-seekers could not find jobs and were pushed into the informal sector.
Sudeshan Reddy, associate public relations officer at the UNHCR for southern Africa, said the king's remarks were unfortunate.
"Such a position requires careful analysis of the facts. I hope it does not lead to attacks on foreigners, but responses are difficult to gauge."