The victimisation of African refugees in South Africa is unbearable, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRLRC) said on World Refugee Day.

"The Commission... is concerned by the ongoing violent victimisation of African refugees across the country particularly in Limpopo where [a] victim was killed by community members," said the commission's chief executive officer Solomon Moreroa.

He was referring to an attack on foreign nationals in Polokwane, Limpopo, two weeks ago that left one Zimbabwean dead and displaced others.

"This unbearable and unprecedented conduct comes in direct contrast with the commemoration of the World Refugee Day on which human rights of refugees are globally observed."

He said the "continued humiliation of African working refugees" contradicted the spirit of ubuntu as enshrined in South Africa's Constitution of 1996.

"We urge the community leadership... to assist in deepening peace, friendship, tolerance, respect for human dignity, and communal cohesion among all people."

The Commission, he said, advanced the Constitution's values that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity and non-racialism and non-sexism".