Stop the madness

THE recent spate of xenophobic attacks on residents, businesses and communities in Johannesburg and Pretoria must be condemned and perpetrators rebuked in the strongest possible terms.

This country was in the news nearly two years ago when a barbaric knife attack on a Mozambican man in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, was captured on camera.

The rallying call thereafter was “Not in our name” as the right-thinking across the nation denounced what was going on and leaders came out to drive the unequivocal message home.

Trouble is that it was not the first time we had gone down the path of such barbarism, violently attacking those regarded as outsiders, “here to steal our jobs, our women, corrupt our children” and every other crime we could think of.

In 2008 a wave of attacks were carried out, with Johannesburg again the epicentre. Many foreigners, usually Africans, were driven out of townships, informal settlements and some suburbs into makeshift refugee camps as scores perished at the hands of killer mobs swarming the streets.

The full extent of the horror was brought home to an otherwise indifferent nation and equally uninterested global audience when pictures of a burning Mozambican man, doused with petrol and set alight, were splashed on newspaper front pages. After that there was nowhere to hide, no pretence that we did not know of the atrocities carried out in our name. It had to stop.

Today, as you read this, the same kind of louts who tarnished our collective image all those years ago are at it again, beating the war drums.

All it ever takes for them to reconnect with their murderous selves is a slight provocation. The last time the spark was a speech by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini for which he walked away with little more than a slap on the wrist.

Now a legitimate but nonetheless reckless call by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba that he was on a mission to rid the city of illegal immigrants who are into crime has seemingly been all the excuse needed to carry out a fresh spate of attacks on foreigners.

Sixteen houses were set alight in suburban Joburg last week for purportedly housing prostitutes and drug peddlers

The violence has spread to Pretoria, where locals also torched houses they believe were used as brothels or drug dens. Not surprisingly, legitimate foreign-owned spaza shops have also felt the wrath of the self-appointed ragtag army of our anti-drug heroes.

But what worries us is the lack of true leadership we feel needs to be out there, putting out the fires even before they even start.

If there is indeed something being done to address the legitimate concerns drowned out by the noise of the empty tins, please rise for all to see and lead.

Stop the death march in its tracks now!