Foreigners, both legal and illegally staying in economic power hub, South Africa, say they fear another wave of xenophobic attacks. The end of the South Africa hosted World Cup 2010 series will signify the start.

Speaking from Johannesburg, Grace Sundu (not real name) from Malawi say there are already rumours indigenants are planning to attack right after the games.

"I live in a poshy house. Big with five rooms. They are not happy about this and I have information they are only waiting for the end of the World Cup to attack us," she said.

Sundu added many foreigners have already started sending their belongings homw and that some are leaving the country.

"We have no choice but to leave. It looks likes they have a strong hatered for foreigners, particularly those from Zimbabwe and Nigeria. It is not safe anymore," she confided.

Last year scores of foreigners were killed, sounded and some displaced when locals mounted home hunts and beat up people.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) website expressed of the 2009 attacks: "The South African authorities must investigate the delayed police response to last month's attacks against refugees and migrants and their property in Siyathemba Township, 80km south east of Johannesburg. The authorities must also ensure that those responsible for the attacks are held accountable."

HRW further discloses over 130 adults and children, most of them Ethiopian refugees, were affected by the violence on 7 and 8 February. They lost their livelihoods when an armed crowd of several hundred people looted and destroyed their shops. Some also lost their homes as they were living in the shops. Nearly 60 people required emergency shelter and humanitarian assistance.

"The South African Police Service (SAPS) failed to prevent the violence from escalating and delayed seeking emergency back-up from organized police units with crowd control capacity. By the time a more effective police response became visible on 8 February, 25 shops had already been looted, damaged or destroyed and at least one refugee, an Ethiopian national, was injured," adds HRW.

Meanwhile an excerpt of a University of Pennysylvania - African Studies Center report, titled 'XENOPHOBIA in South Africa, 6/3/98', documented as Southern Africa: HRW Migration Report, distributed on 03 June 1998 and reposted on the web by APIC, 'Xenophobia and Abuse of Foreigners', states: In general, South Africa's public culture has become increasingly xenophobic, and politicians often make unsubstantiated and inflammatory statements that the "deluge" of migrants is responsible for the current crime wave, rising unemployment, or even the spread of diseases.

As the unfounded perception that migrants are responsible for a variety of social ills grows, migrants have increasingly become the target of abuse at the hands of South African citizens, as well as members of the police, the army, and the Department of Home Affairs. Refugees and asylum-seekers with distinctive features from far-away countries are especially targeted for abuse.

"Foreign hawkers, often asylum applicants with temporary residence permits, have repeatedly been the targets of violent protests and other forms of intimidation as local hawkers attempt to "clean the street of foreigners."

During repeated violent protests in Johannesburg, South African traders and ordinary criminals have brutally beaten foreign hawkers, and stolen their goods. Hawkers interviewed by Human Rights Watch who were the targets of such abuse universally complained to us that the police had done little or nothing in response to their complaints. In many areas around Johannesburg, such as Kempton Park and Germiston, foreign hawkers have had to abandon their trade after repeated attacks and looting incidents in which the police failed in their duty under both international and domestic law to protect all persons.

Human Rights Watch interviewed members of a large community of Somali asylum-seekers who had been forced to abandon their trade and who told Human Rights Watch that they now never left their overcrowded and impoverished compound unless they were in a large group, in order to protect themselves from attacks by hostile "locals."

During the past attacks, the Malawi governments evacuated 15,000 Malawians. One Malawian man died freeing attackers when he jumped off a building, however, most have since returned.

The WC2010 is expected kick off on 10th June.