Like Mbeki in 2008, many government and ANC party functionaries have refused to label the latest outbreak of violence against foreigners as xenophobia. Why is there this reluctance to call a spade a spade, what was the spark that ignited the latest flare-up and what is the prognosis for future outbreaks?
It was like déjà vu. As I drove alone south on an almost empty N3 in the pre-dawn gloom towards OR Tambo to catch the early morning flight to Pietermaritzburg, I was astounded at the overt racism of the callers either in their justification of the attacks on the foreigners or their “humane human-rights” solutions to the problem.
All of the callers to the Early Breakfast show – as it is styled – on 702 Talk Radio were predominately from the townships.
Main picture: Xenophobic attacks halted business in Durban’s CBD