Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has appealed for calm after recent violence against migrants in South Africa.
He has been accused of fuelling the attacks, which have killed at least seven people, after saying foreigners should “go back to their countries”.
More than 300 people have been arrested in the unrest.
Thousands packed into a stadium in the eastern city of Durban to hear King Zwelithini’s address. He says his comments were distorted by the media.
In King Zwelithini’s speech, he said it was not fair to blame the violence on one individual, pointing out that there had been several previous outbreaks of xenophobic violence in South Africa.
He added that the South African Human Rights Commission should investigate the hate speech charges against him without hindrance.
Among the latest arrests were three men detained in connection with the murder of a Mozambican national in Alexandra, a township in Johannesburg.
South African photojournalist James Outway witnessed Emmanuel Sithole being stabbed to death in broad daylight and has spoken to the BBC about what he saw:
Except for MrSithole, those killed have been in Durban, the biggest city in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. They are an Ethiopian, a Mozambican, someone who is believed to be Zimbabwean and three South Africans.South African President Jacob Zuma has condemned the attacks, saying they “go against everything we believe in”.
With the unemployment rate at 24%, many South Africans accuse foreign nationals of taking jobs from locals.
Thousands of foreigners have fled their homes to shelter in makeshift camps.
Official data suggests there are about two million foreign nationals in South Africa, but some estimates put the number much higher.
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