Why are South Africans attacking fellow Africans?

Editor, Reference is made to the article, “Immigrants shut shops as anti-foreigner violence rages in South Africa” (The New Times, April 16). I hope this episode of anti-fellow African thuggery by those most indebted to fellow Africans for their political (certainly neither economic nor moral) emancipation, provides a rejoinder to some Rwandans who have been whining that the Government hasn’t done enough to mend fences with Pretoria to ease their obtaining of South African visas. What more do people need to understand that South Africans, especially of the black strain, don’t want you in their country? They would rather hobnob with their “fellow” non-Africans than you. I wonder what those renowned pan-Africanists like Steve Biko and Franz Fanon would make of today’s South Africa, from the political leadership via the Black Economically Empowered, bling bling-besotted nouveaux riches (but perhaps I repeat myself as they are merely two faces of the same coin) all the way to the xenophobic thugs terrorizing fellow members of the overwhelming majority of the shack-dwelling underclass, just for the ‘crime’ of being non-South African blacks. While it is the thuggery tendency in the townships who are wielding the weapons against their fellow Africans, the blame for this situation should be placed where it belongs; squarely on the shoulders of a thoroughly bankrupt and corrupt self- enriching political and economic elite that long stopped even the pretence of being interested in transforming the South African society and economy to give a fair shake to each and every one of its citizens. Mwene Kalinda

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Why are South Africans attacking fellow Africans?