In South Africa, a Measured Response to Anti-Immigrant Violence

Anti-immigrant violence in South Africa is threatening the African National Congress' tenuous hold on power. The most recent wave of attacks has resulted in the deaths of at least seven African immigrants. Attacks on immigrant-owned shops across the country started in April in poorer townships around Durban and spread to other cities in the eastern provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Though this year's outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa has killed fewer than a similar surge in 2008, it is indicative of widely felt frustration in the face of an economic downturn.