JOHANNESBURG: More than 30 people have were arrested in South Africa after a fresh outbreak of anti-foreigner violence.

President Jacob Zuma said Saturday he has canceled a state visit to Indonesia in order to deal with the situation.

Zuma “has canceled his visit to Indonesia in order to attend to matters at home relating to the attacks on foreign nationals,” his office said.

Mobs attacked shops owned by immigrants in a poor area of Johannesburg on Saturday following similar violence in another part of the country that killed six people, according to media reports.

There was a heavy police presence in Alexandra township after rioters looted some shops, burned tires and built street barricades overnight. The report says police fired rubber bullets in an attempt to stop the unrest, news outlet eNCA reported.

Several shops and cars owned by immigrants were torched in downtown Johannesburg in recent days.

Attacks on immigrants, many of them from other African countries, in and around the coastal city of Durban have subsided after the deaths of six people there, police said. Some 112 people were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal province, which includes Durban, during the riots there, according to authorities.

Some South Africans have accused immigrants of taking jobs and opportunities away from them in a country with high unemployment. The government has said it is addressing complaints about undocumented migrants, while noting that many foreign nationals are living legally in South Africa and contributing to economic development.

About 60 people died in similar unrest in South Africa in 2008. In January this year, four people died during a week of looting of foreign-owned shops and other violence in Soweto and other areas of Johannesburg.

Also on Saturday, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe expressed shock and disgust at attacks on immigrants in neighboring South Africa and said his government was working to bring back home affected Zimbabwean citizens.

Mugabe said during a speech at a football stadium in the capital Harare to mark 35 years of Zimbabwe’s independence that all Africans in South Africa should be treated with dignity.

“I would want now to express our sense of shock, disgust as we abhor the incidences which happened in Durban,” Mugabe said.

“The act of treating other Africans in that horrible way can never be condoned by anyone,” said the 91-year-old, speaking on behalf of the regional Southern African Development Community and African Union, both of which he currently chairs.

The Malawian government has hired buses to repatriate 500 of its nationals, Information Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa said on Friday. He urged South Africa to provide greater protection for immigrants, echoing demands from China and the African Union.

Mugabe said his government had put in place measures to bring back its citizens but did not give details.

The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that Zimbabwe planned to repatriate 1,000 citizens and was setting up a receiving center at Beitbridge, the biggest border post with South Africa.