Rioting and Violence in South Africa

[Thac0man]

This story has been unfolding for a few days, business, homes and indeed a couple of people burned. Dozens killed and thousands made homeless.

Already an Exodus has started:

Mozambique is laying on special buses, which have taken some 9,000 people home this week, an official said.

Taken from here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7414214.stm

The SA government seems to have done a bunk, wheeling Winnie Mandela out to express the nations concern, while Nelson, Mbeki and Zuma are conspicious by their absence. Is the current crises in the ANC leading to political paralysis because the fractured ANC cannot afford to further alienate the already disillusioned poor of SA? The ANC are taking action, but it seems to be (perhaps inadvertently) making for an orderly 'clearing of the decks'. Most immigrants will flee home and Zimbabweans will be forced into refugee camps, a policy the ANC failed to impliment in its rush to cash in on the Zimbabwean brain drain.

There are claims that this violance looks like it is well co-ordinated. Are rival factions or the ANC or Inkatha involved in orchastrating these attacks? What was the spark?

If political parties at any level are involved, the spark may have been the recent official protest by the Nigerian government in their 'blame everyone else' foreign policy campaign. Having high level Nigerian political muscle represent Nigerias mass immigrant influx would surely alienate an already angry poor South African population who see themsevles as not having the same representation. The Nigerian political campaign always seemed to be a policy ripe for backfiring abroad as much as it might serve to take attention off issues at home.

I did predict violence in South Africa as a result of the open borders policy of the ANC, but did not see it being this one sided.

This whole issue seems to have caught the Eurpoean liberal set off guard and shocked silance seems to be the result. It would seem in the Rainbow nation there is only room for so many of one colour. Anyone care to offer an opinion as to the possible legacy and shape of South Africa after this crises abates?

[popper]

It is a godawful mess of a country in which the chances of being raped/mugged/murdered are higher than anywhere else in the world, or certainly in the top two or three. ANC elite seem still to have some credibility despite completley failing the people they allegedly represent and endemic corruption so current situation unlikely to destabilise the regime.

[PaintingMedium]

When you say room for one colour, what colour is that?

[JCSkinner]

This is a combination of two immense balls ups.
1. Permitting untrammelled immigration.
2. Mbeki's refusal to address the Mugabe situation in Zim.

Whatever the merits, and I've never seen any, in allowing a free-for-all entry to a rich country like ours, it was sheer madness for a country with over 40% unemployment and very real poverty like SA to have thrown open its doors to migrants. First time I went there some years back, the locals were already complaining about 'Little Lagos' in Downtown Jozi. Since then, the tensions have risen drastically, especially with those internal migrants from the Eastern Cape.
But the biggest exacerbation has been Mbeki's tacit propping up of the disastrous Zanu regime in Zim. If Mbeki had gone in hard, the syphilitic psycho would be long gone, and the process of rebuilding Zim's economy would have begun long since.
Instead, he was happy (on behalf of SA employers) to see the brightest and best Zim workers flood into SA and work for peanuts. Of course the bosses loved them because they were desperate, worked hard and spoke English. But the locals who lost that work weren't so happy, obviously. Hence the tensions that have led to this sad pass.
Mbeki is to blame. The sooner he is gone the better.

[JDLK]

Isnt the next world cup in SA?

[popper]

Mbeki did win the rugby world cup!

[Wolverine2]

Looks like another revolution is required.

[popper]

Looks like another revolution is required.

You reckon that would improve things? Revolutions in Africa tend to make things worse rather than better. A revolution in South Africa would be like a jail riot in San Quentin. An excuse for murder and mayhem on an even greater scale than they currently enjoy.

[Wolverine2]

Yeah, there's that danger, although I'd say things won't get better without some form of confrontation - it doesn't have to be as violent as previous ones though.

Perhaps a peaceful movement of civil disobedience against corruption.

[Morris Phillips]

Although anyone who says it is branded a "racist", The facts show that African countries were better under white rule. The blacks in Rhodesia were far better off under the old order.
I was talking to a white South African doctor in CUH recently and he said what SA needed was "A bit of the old discipline"

The African needs a firm hand. Without it there is no order in these countries, they have proved themselves incapable of running a prosperous country and the fact is it is down to Africans inherent laziness. (Studies of French owned factories in Senegal concur).