It's not Xenophobia, it's the beginning of SA's slide into anarchy

"I can't say this is xenophobia. This is a kind of organised crime by a mob of lazy people hiding behind xenophobia to loot and rob others' goods." - Solomon Abdi (from Somalia)

NVDL: All South Africans, whites in particular, ought to be concerned about this. Large mobs invading homes, and essentially committing mass robberies under the cover of chaos, and safety in numbers. Why is this happening now? Simple. Some basic commodities have just become unaffordable for a large group of people - things like bread, milk, meat and fruit. They have overnight turned into economic losers. Many of them. And this is the response. Except more of the same, and it will devastate poor communities and in time [mass violent crime/looting] will target suburbia in general.

Schalk Burger's sister may have a little bit of the psychology right, in deciding not to be a victim. But her response is actually completely irrational. It's once again a 'positivised ignorance' at the expense of a critical appraisal of the context (reality) that we live in. A rational response is to assuage how severe the crime situation has become, that we are starting to famous people more and more become victims of crime (at one end of the spectrum) and at the other end, mobs preying on the poor.

As with the fuel, I don't expect this to sink in until it is a foregone conclusion. South Africa is at the leading edge of what Peak Oil expert (we emailed each other today) James Kunstler calls, The Long Emergency. And South Africa will provide a vicious case study for the West for how a country in an energy crisis breaks down into anarchy, chaos and degradation.

Xenophobic South Africans Attack Zimbabweans

Violence spreads as South Africans turn on their neighbours

GET OUT OR BE DRIVEN OUT. It was this message, delivered by a group of some 200 residents to 'foreigners' (mostly Zimbabweans) that sparked a few isolated incidents late Sunday night in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra.

A few days later, against a backdrop of violent mobs facing off against each other and the armed contingents of the South African Police, four people had died, and dozens had been injured, while scores of Zimbabwean and South Africans alike, fled to nearby police stations to escape the growing tyranny against them. Recent estimates put the number seeking security in police shelters at about 1000.

The brushfire violence spread so rapidly and apparently randomly, that some of the local inhabitants in Alexandra began to identify their nationalities by painting messages across the fronts of their shacks, or standing at their front doors with identifying documents. Groups combed one area of Alexandra (known as Extension 7) house-to-house infuriated by runors that some houses had been given to foreign nationals at the expensive of locals living in nearby shacks.

Rumor mill

The mob decided to take matters into their own hands fired up by the belief that the Zimbabweans were to blame for widespread criminality and the afflictions of unemployment. They were operating to some extent on behalf of local communities that have become crippled by poverty.

Meanwhile, a large group of Zimbabweans armed with sticks mobilised, prepared and ready to face their attackers. Some reports put this mob at about 500 strong.

Violence is spreading

Now that violence has spread to another area, Diepsloot (literally: 'Deep Drain'), and Metro police have indicated the horrifying nature of those attacks: men in several pick-up trucks driving in the night and firing a hail of bullets on Diepsloot residents.

Some South African voices have condemned the attacks, including Blade Nzimande (from South Africa's Communist party) and even Winnie Mandela. Nelson Mandela himself made a rare statement, reminding South Africans of their hard-won freedoms, and cautioning against acts of 'divisiveness'. Other leaders called the xenophobia 'shameful' and 'disgraceful'. South Africa's President (Thabo Mbeki) and President-in-waiting (Jacob Zuma) have remained eerily silent on the issue.

Back to the bad old days

The front pages of newspapers this week have harked back to the bad old days of Apartheid, with headlines like ALEX DOOR-TO-DOOR PURGE, FEAR AND LOATHING IN ALEX and POLITICIANS DITHER AS VIOLENCE SPREADS. Pictures of black faces covered in shining red blood, and policemen captured with guns blazing were eerily remininicent of South Africa's racist past. In a recent television bulletin, a police superintendant warned that if the police were targetted, 'real bullets' would be used to defend themselves.

The local MEC for safety and Security, Firoz Cachalia, has described the incidents as 'not just xenophobia', citing a criminal element that is taking advantage of the hysteria. Other reports suggest a 'third force' has been behind the attacks. The South African Human Rights commission cited the government's lack of response to illegal immigrants, poverty and emergent xenophobia as contributing to these elevated levels of civil strife.

So far 66 people in Alexandra have been arrested for their part in the violence.