Xenophobia fever simmers

Xenophobic violence doesn't spring fully formed from a vacuum. It's the last resort and predictable – though never justifiable – reaction of excluded citizens who believe, often perfectly correctly, that jobs, services and the fabric of belonging that binds a nation are being eroded by an influx of foreigners.

- William Saunderson-Meyer

It is condescending to berate people for their "wrong thinking" from a position of privilege. The elite is insulated by protected suburbs, secure jobs, private schools and hospitals. It is the working class, not the well-heeled, who compete directly with illegals for work.

From the start of our democracy, xenophobia has simmered beneath the surface.

Predictably, the gap between ANC rhetoric and reality soon exploded into waves of xenophobic violence – from spaza-shop killings in the late '90s to the nationwide attacks of 2008 and, more recently, the ominous Operation Dudula campaigns, so far not yet lethal.

While the violence is undisputed, the scale of the problem is contested. One cannot fix what one cannot measure and on the question of how many foreign nationals live here – legally or illegally – the estimates swing wildly.