Thousands of people marched through South Africa's biggest city yesterday, calling for an end to the violence that has killed at least 50 African migrants and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.
Demonstrators carrying placards saying 'Xenophobia hurts like apartheid' and 'We stand against xenophobia' brought traffic to a standstill in Johannesburg's city centre.
People in the Hillbrow district, home to many African immigrants, cheered the march, which was organised by churches and labour unions.
Police said townships around Johannesburg were quiet but shops were looted and burnt outside Cape Town late on Friday.
The South African government has been criticised for its slow reaction to the violence, the worst since apartheid ended 14 years ago, and for not addressing the poverty that is widely blamed for the bloodshed.
President Thabo Mbeki said South Africans should not turn on other Africans and pledged that his government was committed to ending the violence.
"Today we are faced with a disgrace, a humiliation as a nation in that we have allowed a handful of people to commit crimes against other Africans living in our country," Mbeki said on visit to a mission school in the Eastern Cape province.
The violence started in Johannesburg's Alexandra township on May 11, and has spread to Cape Town and the eastern port city of Durban.
Police said at least 50 people had been killed in areas around Johannesburg. More than 25,000 had been driven from their homes in 13 days of attacks by mobs who have stabbed, clubbed and burnt migrants from other parts of Africa whom they accuse of taking jobs and fuelling crime.
Police said townships around Johannesburg were quiet yesterday and in South Africa's premier tourism destination of Cape Town security forces were monitoring several flashpoints after anti-foreigner violence continued during the night.
Superintendent Andre Traut said shops were looted and burnt in Du Noon squatter settlement and in Kraaifontein outside Cape Town, as well as the city's largest township, Khayelitsha, where an estimated one million people live.