Xenophobia and violence in Cape Town

Many of my family members are concerned about the violence that has been taking place in South Africa against foreigners, so I wrote to my friend Hugh von Zahn to ask about it. He has written twice to explain what has been happening. The first email was on May 26 and is reproduced below:
Your family is quite right to ask these questions and I will try to give you an explanation of what is going on here
For many years now SA has been the goal for millions of displaced people from other parts of Africa. I once spoke to a gentleman who worked for our Dept of Foreign Affairs who told me that they had evidence taken from satellite photos that showed some 50 million people in Africa moving southwards. These were victims of wars, internecine conflicts and economic hardship. Since 1994 we have had a steady influx of Africans from Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe crossing our borders. Turmoil in other parts of Africa over the last 5 years has seen ad additional influx of refugees from places like Ruwanda, Somalia, DRC and Nigeria.
The exact numbers of migrants are hard to come by because our borders are long and porous, our border controls extremely slack, especially outside of the international airports, and our Dept. of Home Affairs riddled with corruption. To make matters worse, the meltdown in Zimbabwe starting in 2002 has resulted in anywhere betweeen 5 and 7 million Zimbabweans living in SA.
What all this has meant is that for many South Africans these people have become very visible. Because almost all of these economic migrants are destitute, they end up living in squatter settlements, check by jowl with our urban poor. The net result is a type of competition for resources such as jobs, opportunities and living space. What has exacerbated the situation is that many illegals come with skills and flair so they end up being seen to be more successful than their South African counterparts.
The real failure has been one of government policy. Everyone has known for years that unrestricted immigration would lead to social unrest. The warning signs have been there but the government chosen to ignore it in the hope that things would sort themselves out. Goernment has made very little effort to improve our border control, in fact they disbanded our border police and gave the duty to our overstretched police force. Decisions like these beggar belief and are often motivated by erroneous thinking and personal greed. For example, a few government ministers have an interest in a repatriation centre in Johannesburg where illegal immigrants are deported to Mozambique every day. It is a lucrative government contract.
The biggest policy failure was Thabo Mbeki's reluctance to consure Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe when the insanity started. By adopting what he called 'quiet diplomacy' he aided and abetted the violence and the economic meltdown. The reasons are complex and varied, not least being Mbeki's misreading of public sentiment in SA. As thinks got worse in Zimbabwe, so many fled looking for better opportunities in SA. Those who fled were often the breadwinners who would look for work in SA and repatriate funds back home. What has not helped the situation has been the failure to record all these people and to put policies in place for dealing with them. Our response has been only to process 'refugees' and then to only give them temporary residence permits. Many fall through the cracks and resort to buying false ID documents from corrupt Home Affairs officials. What this means is that these people can now apply for hoursing get jobs, and state aid. The corruption has been exposed by the media but we have a curious way of dealing withe this type of behaviour: we either deny it or institute protracted investigations that are buried as soon as the spotlight is off.
The violence started about 2 weeks ago in a township in Johanessburg called Alexandra. The police were caught unawares and it soon escalated into random acts of violence and looting. At first the government was quick to blame it on criminal elements but as things progressed it became apparent that it was fueled by longstanding grievances and that the foreign Africans had become a convenient scapegoat.
To date some 42 people have lost their lives and thousands have been displaced across the country. Here in the Western Cape the authorities estimate that 30,000 people have been uprooted. For a while last week we thought that we had escaped the conflagration but last week-end riots broke out in a northern settlement called Du Noon and so we also have a crisis on our hands.
The response from government has been abysmal - a lot of hand wringing and speculation as everyone ducks for cover. On the other hand civil society has stepped into the breach with hundreds of NGO's, churches, charities and aid organizations providing shelter and food Many immigrants have started returning to their countries. Some 20,000Mozambiqueans have pitched up in Maputo which has put a strain on that city's reosources.
The reaction from ordinary South Africans has been shock and horror. Yesterday's Sunday Times had a scathing article on the failure of government to heed the warning signs and the need for Thabo Mbeki to step down. The ANC has tried sending out the leadership to talk to people in affected areas. Mostly this has been surprisingly ineffective. The great moral leaders like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are too old to have a real impact and we simply do not have others to take their place. The criticism form political commentators, editors and opinion makers has been damning and there is a real fear in the ANC that the schism in the party will only widen as head towards elections next year. There is much speculation as what will happen but the next 2 weeks will be pivotal.
How all this will affect you is difficult to say. Like in the years leading up to 1994, most of the violence is contained in the townships and then only in certain ones. Much of the violence is being perpetrated by disaffected youths and is unlikely to continue for too much longer as the security forces have been beefed up by the military. I think that the effects will be long term. This is a situation that will have to be addressed in a different way. Our policy makers are going to have to apply their minds to the problem of urban poverty and find sustainable solutions. This has been a big wake up call for the government as well as ordinary South Africans. We can no longer rely on business as usual, we have to find mechanisms to transfer wealth to the poor faster and more effectively.
How will your safety be affected? I don't think that your personal safety will be compromised. Cross Cutural ?? [Solutions] will obviously be keeping an ear to the ground and will take all precautions to ensure that the volunteers are in no way put into harms way. This not like teaching in Kabul. What you have to remember is that what you see is not generalized. Cape Town is still working, the kids are at school, I'm sill delivering juice to thirsty guests in hotels. Life goes on.
I hope that this goes some way to assuaging your fears, however I appreciate that there will be many other questions and concerns so please don't hesitate to ask the hard questions. I will always do my best to anser them, both from you and your family.

On May 29, Hugh wrote again:
Thought I'd drop you a note to keep you posted on what has been happening here. As expected, the violence has died down completely but we are now saddled with a huge refugee problem. Most of the displaced people have now been housed in 6 makeshift camps dotted around the city. As it has started raining again this is proving to be a challenge for the city health authorities. Our Mayoress has called on the UNHCR to lend a hand but they are waiting for government to give the go ahead (shades of Myanmar). In fact the UN commissioner in Pretoria was highly critical of the facilities saying that government should have left it to them because we have no expertise when it comes to dealing with humanitarian crises - which is true. Medcin sans Frontieres has also been voicing their misgivings about housing people in camps, something they regard as an absolute last resort.
Currently it is still the civil society organizations that are carrying out the bulk of the relief work. There has been an unbelieveable response form across the social spectrum; everywhere there are collections donations and volunteers helping. Both our schools have launched appeals for blankets, food, toiletries, etc. There was interesting development in an informal settlement in the Noordhoek Valley called Masipumelele a few days ago when community leaders apologized to the representatives of the Somali community who were3 driven out when the troubles started. The community of Masipumelele even went to the houses of known looters and demanded the return of goods that were stolen. Whether the Somalis will respond remains to be seen. At the moment there is still too much fear and trepidation for a return, although there has been talk of trying to reintegrate these people into the various communities - something I think amounts to wishful thinking. In other SADC countries there has been a flurry of activitiy.
To date some 1,300 people have been arrested in connection with the violence and the government is thinking of setting up special courts to deal with these cases. We are trying to get back to normal but it will still be some time before we can put this all behind us. In the meantime we have to deal with the global food and energy crisis. Like everywhere else we are seeing massive incresase in all commodities and it is having a severe impact on our inflation rate. Our prime lending rate is at 14 1/2% and there is talk in the marketplace that this may bo up by 2 points in July. Unfortunately we import a lot of our inflation so there is onbly a limited amount that our reserve bank can do.