In South Africa, xenophobic blacks prove almost as deadly as Apartheid whites…

I am proud of the fact that I participated in the US-led international protests during the 1980s that precipitated the end of white rule (Apartheid) in South Africa.

And I remember thinking back then that a South Africa ruled by liberated blacks could be the beacon of hope and the land of opportunity for Africans that America is for people all over the world.

The screams of the burning Mozambican still haunt me…. I have never seen such barbarism. [Zimbabwean woman as told to the BBC]

Therefore, the events unfolding there today are as ironic as they are disappointing. Because in recent weeks, the deadly violence black South Africans have perpetrated against black foreigners rivals the violence white South Africans perpetrated against blacks during Apartheid.

In fact, just imagine a prevailing state of fear that would force a Zimbabwean – who (along with 3 million others) immigrated to South Africa to escape starvation, poverty and political oppression – to return to Zimbabwe because he would rather die in his homeland than in South Africa.

Yet reports are that thousands of Zimbabweans have begun doing just that in recent days. Likewise, Mozambicans, Nigerians and blacks of all nationalities are fleeing South Africa to escape the spate of attacks by unemployable mobs who, ironically, blame them for the country’s high crime and unemployment.

(One wonders when, like the angry mobs in Zimbabwe, they will begin taking out their frustrations on employed and relatively wealthy whites who represent the legacy of their colonial oppression….)

Tent city set up outside a police station in Johannesburg for those who have fled their homes but have yet to flee the country

South Africa has a total population of 49 million, of which 5 million are foreigners. Unfortunately, despite the ANC government’s commendable efforts to create jobs, the country’s unemployment rate hovers at around 30%. And this, of course, is primarily the source of the frustration that has led black South Africans to scapegoat black foreigners….

Things have gotten so bad in some areas that – for the first time since the end of Apartheid in 1994 – the army has been deployed to patrol the streets of South Africa.

Since the attacks began on May 11, 42 foreigners have been killed, hundreds have been injured, thousands have been displaced and 15,000 have fled the country.

Alas, with suspected rapist and rabble-rouser Jacob Zuma poised to take over the South African presidency next year, I fear mob violence borne of economic frustration will only worsen….

UPDATE (May 25): Despite deployment of the army, xenophobic violence continues to escalate, prompting President Thabo Mbeki to call it:

…an absolute disgrace that has blemished the country’s name.

Never mind that it was Mbeki’s constructive support for Mugabe’s oppressive regime that forced so many Zimbabweans to flee to South Africa in the first place….

According to the latest reports, 50 people have been killed and 25,000 driven from their homes.

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