Foreigners not the problem

Blaming foreigners for the food-poisoning deaths of children is crude, simplistic, populist xenophobia. It diverts attention from the deeper causes.

- Martin Williams

Foreigners are being made scapegoats for failures of a dysfunctional state.

If national departments such as health, education, police and environment did their jobs properly, along with their provincial and municipal counterparts, it is unlikely that 22 children would have died and scores fallen ill.

William Gumede, associate professor at Wits School of Governance, put it eloquently in the Sunday Times: "The toxic mix of corruption, incompetence and ignorance of elected officials and public servants, combined with their lack of accountability, has led to the chronic collapse of many government departments, agencies and oversight institutions, which inevitably leads to a total governmental system failure once a tipping point is reached " which it now has in South Africa.