This article is 100% on the money. I feel deeply sorry for all involved in the violence. There have been straws in the wind and I just don't understand why our beloved leaders couldn't see the signs.

Readers should read the book The Great Reckoning by Sir William Reese Mogg and then look around what is happening world wide the books original title was Blood On The Streets. On what is happeing here now reminds one of "KristalNacht" is Hitler maybe around by any chance these people are no better then the brownshirts and they are the same as the NAZIS. The goverment has to take the blame listen carfully at a lot to the rhetoric and you can here the "racist"comments from the so called non racial ANC. I have read articles no matter the right or wrongs of the past how "whites are not african enough for africa" etc etc it is comments like these that lead to the actions we have seen in South Africa recently. Cleanse your hearts from all your hatred and bitterness first and stop your double talk,some comments made by community leaders i qoute from papers have been why are the "whites indian and others not being attacked" The point i am making it is this kind of talk that enflames the nation when we can or could have made it a great nation but the ANC has spoiled it for enriching a couple of OLD BOYS They are self centred and care none for the masses

Hello Africa, I posted the following comment about 8 hours on an American news web site. It seems we share a common understanding of the problem in South Africa- --------------------------------------

‘Xenophobic’ implies a phobia, an irrational fear of imagined threats. That millions of illegal immigrants have invaded their country is a fact, not a phobia, and it is also a fact that South African citizens suffer economically in the face of multitudes willing to work for nothing. These are hardly phobias.

That the widespread violence has justification in the eyes of the citizenry ensures this uprising will be a tough nut to crack, especially if competent leaders arise from their masses, leaders who realize the real culprit as their own government’s failure to safeguard the sovereignty of the nation, and turn against it.

This is more likely now that the South African government has foolishly engaged its army, when it should have instead addressed the people, and engaged them.

-theantibush

Before 9/11 came along I read a book by Sir William Reese Mogg Counceller of the Exchequer THE GREAT RECKONING i would advise people to read it he actually pointed out all these things going to happen. Goverments are bankrupt and cannot sustain the welfare states any longer. What I have seen in South Africa now reminds me historically of "KristalNacht" is Hitler maybe alive again this borders on NAZISM just in another flavour and colour. The goverment is to blame look at lot of the racial rheotoric that is banterd around by parlimentarians, I will not be surprised if the "other" nationalities "whites,Indians and chinese soon get attacked as well" as we are not deemed "AFRICAN" enough by some african people or am I to believe that this is just a phase!! May God rid all hearts of Hate and Bitterness In Jesus Name!

Mbeki's condoning of Mugabe's continuing dictatorship is a key causal ingredient here.

What I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the direct impact of the stalled change in government in Zimbabwe, in which Mbeki has had a major role in condoning by his various non-actions and non-condemnations, not to mention his disgusting display of comradeship in the photos beamed globally of him holding hands with brother Bob.

When the MDC won the parliamentary election the world was elated at what they saw coming -- the end of the iron-fist Mugabe dictatorship. Everyone then waited with bated breath for the presidential election results. We all know what has happened there, and the intimidation and brutality since the election.

The point is, thinking people all over were excited at the imminent return to some sanity up north from us. Zimbabweans of all hues were preparing to return home, either as business people to help rebuild their nation, or as peasants and labourers to go back to their more humble dwellings and pick up their lives again.

In South Africa this meant too that the pressures - resulting from the incompetent immigration policies and the mismanagement of Mbeki and his struggle cronies - would get some relief as many Zimbabweans would pack up their homes in the townships and squatter camps and leave for the north.

Black South Africans knew this, and they too must have been ecstatic because this was due to happen any day now -- or so they all believed in their celebratng hearts.

EVERYONE (except Zanu-PF) is disappointed, frustrated and many are very, very angry at the delay in this exodus and rebuilding of Zim. And anger erupts into violence as anger is wont to do. And what we have seen these past days is significantly due to this anger and frustration that is now even worse because it is contrasted by the previous elation and excitement.

The finger again points to the ANC givernment and its ostrich-minded State President.

This ANC government, and in particular its current State President, is busy ruining South Africa just as Mugabe has ruined Zimbabwe. It's clearly time for a change, not just in the country's presidency but also in who governs this country in Parliament and Cabinet.

We need a government that has a vison that ALL South Africans can buy into and be inspired by. And we need a President and a government that is non-racist and not obsessed with colour, quotas, racial preferences; and one that is NOT riddled with fraud and self-enrichment.

Viva the upcoming and first-ever NEW, truly democratic, non-racial, non-croneyism, non-struggle-mentality, COMPETENT government! Viva the imminent NEW South Africa we can ALL be proud of.

Dja! Dis wat ek laaik! Dis wat ekka will hê!

Your comments are so useful. They really raise a good point which I've not seen elsewhere - the sheer staggering disappointment at seeing everyone's hopes for Zimbabwe being shattered or at least left in a weird sort of limbo. And the frustration of years of no-change here, with increasing realisation that the so-called leaders in South Africa simply do not care a fig about the majority of poor people. The pogroms of the last weeks are barbaric indeed, but what about the systematic, callous and willfully blind neglect and injustice which grinds EVERYONE down, day after day. Mbeki has been the most dismaying disappointment with his denials on so many fronts.

Please may I use your comments (with the article they reply to) in my English classes. I work with township and Cape Flats students in a school in Bellville South.

Ingrid

Ingrid, you're welcome to use my post.

Here's another inconvenient thought - about Zimbabwe: Why DID Zim get the President it has, in the first place? Could it have been Nature's response to a country whose economy was supported in no small measure by the sale and export of health-hazardous tobacco? (Just wondering.)