Xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa

I feel sick to my stomach. Not since the deepest, darkest days of Apartheid have I felt the churning I now feel in my belly. Foreigners from other African nations have been hacked to death and burnt by ordinary South Africans in a xenophobic frenzy. Thousands of people are fleeing for their lives. They are displaced, terrified, and like so many who watch, are horrified. Families are being torn apart. Even employers of foreigners (alleged or real) are not safe.

South Africa has boiled over. The seething difficulties fuelled by recent price hikes and the worsening situation in Zimbabwe and hence increased numbers of foreigners entering South Africa are the final blows to an already tense-to-breaking-point nation. Disappointed, frustrated and unheard, thousands of South Africans have sunk to new levels of venting and violence.

I can write no sense on this one. I expect few people can. The blame game is too easy, the sadness too immense. Instead I laud those who are assisting, those who migh be able to mediate, those who can assist with money, food, shelter. And most of all I laud those leaders in the community who can, and I am sure will, find a way of talking people down and restoring the balance. I hope that they are helped by measured intervention from the army, and I implore the government of the day to declare a state of emergency and to act, fast and decisively.