Professor Zephne M van der SpuyI; Professor Lizo MazwaiII; Professor Ralph KirschIII
IPresident
IIImmediate Past President
IIIPast President
The Colleges of Medicine of South Africa has observed with dismay and horror the xenophobic violence which has been manifest on an unprecedented scale over the past 2 weeks in South Africa.
These brutal attacks on vulnerable and often long-established members of our communities are abhorrent and reflect total disregard of our constitutional commitment to protect the rights of everyone who lives in South Africa. We support the involvement of many of the members of our Colleges in providing relief and support to these victims.
We also wish to state that we have developed links with many colleagues in Colleges and Universities in Africa and, as a consequence, have had the opportunities of valuable professional exchanges and the development of academic links within Africa. We wish to emphasise that we hope these will continue and expand despite the dismal image we are currently projecting to the international community.
Together with many of our fellow South Africans we have a sense of shame because of the violence. We support our leaders in their attempts to deal with this national tragedy and urge all sectors of government and civil society to do their utmost to contain, and put an end to, this wave of xenophobia in our country.
The Colleges of Medicine of South Africa 27 May 2008
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