Life is back to normal a month after residents of Mamelodi, a township in northeast Pretoria, South Africa, marched from the old Marabastad bus terminal to the Home Affairs offices in protest over criminality among immigrants.
Now, there are calls for closer re-examination of the action, which many see as threatening peace in one of Africa's biggest economies.
The immigrants are accused of taking away jobs from local people. Spokesperson for the protesters Makgoka Lekganyane said the march was to show they were tired of being slaves in their own country.
South Africa has 2.3 million immigrants — 1.6 million of these are Congolese, Ethiopians, Mozambicans, Nigerians, Somalians and Zimbabweans. Many of these migrants run small shops or work in service industries. Disputed estimates say unregistered migrants number up to five million. The line between violence against immigrants who are criminals and xenophobia is hard to discern.
A week earlier in Pretoria West, two houses were torched, its occupants, immigrants of Nigerian origin, accused of pimping. The incident sparked the looting of 20 foreign-owned shops in the suburbs of Atteridgeville‚ Lotus Gardens and Mamelodi East.
On 11 February, at least ten houses, alleged drug dens and brothels, had been set alight in Rosettenville, Johannesburg. Again locals blamed Nigerians as the source of criminal activity.
In the space of two weeks, pamphlets and messages appeared in social media. Community members were urged to join a peaceful march against immigrants. In the past such language and actions have rarely ended peacefully. They lead to looting, destruction, and death. Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba expressed concern at the outbreak of violence, stating that it was not merely linked to xenophobia.
Xenophobic violence against non-nationals, particularly if they are black African, is almost a ritual in South Africa. No amount of preaching keeps it at bay. It rears its ugly head, gets stamped out and lies dormant in the hearts and minds of those who perform it.
"Due to South Africa's slow economic growth and increased inequalities, the fierce competition for limited resources, services and opportunities between foreigners and the unemployed poor needs to be comprehensively addressed."
The worst occurred in 2008, when more than 60 people died nationwide at the hands of South Africans. On 30 March, the 2015 xenophobic violence began in Isipingo, an industrial and residential area in the eThekwini metro south of Durban's city. No clear reasons for the skirmishes were available, but a rumour spread that a local company was employing illegal immigrants for