Violence in South Africa

Anger against immigrants in South Africa is now boiling in the country’s poor townships.

 

A wave of violence against them over the weekend left dozens of people dead, hundreds injured, and even more homeless. Many immigrants have been forced out of their homes and are seeking shelter elsewhere.

 

Some communities have come together and taken to patrolling their neighbourhoods in order to maintain security amid this spasm of looting, burning, rape and killing.

 

Inside Story asks are immigrants being scapegoated by South Africa’s poor for their economic woes or is this an extension of the widespread crime that is silently killing the country’s people?

 

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