Op-Ed: The politics of Xenophobia/Rampant criminality

On Friday morning, as the nation's media and politicians descended upon the Moroka Police Station in Soweto, a debate broke out about the causes of last week's violence in that area. Several high-profile politicians, including the Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane proclaimed, from on high perhaps, that it was not "xenophobic". Academic researchers, the Somalian Embassy and others immediately disagreed with her, claiming that the people who had been attacked – or the owners of looted shops – were all foreign. It appears there is some distance between "rampant criminality" and "xenophobia". On the ground in the middle stand our police. By STEPHEN GROOTES.