Revenge of the subalterns

Mavuso Dingani

The intensity of the xenophobic attacks in Gauteng has taken the government, media, political analysts, and all the included in the new South Africa by surprise.

As pictures of bloodied men and women, burnt shacks and the atoms of destruction scattered on empty streets were first beamed into suburban living rooms I could just imagine the moral indignation in all those homes.

'How could this happen here? Who is responsible? Surely it must criminal elements. And of course the underlying message - Not here in South Africa…Africa maybe with its Hutsi and Tus-whatever, in Kenya, or 'mughabhe's' Zim….but not a stone's throw away from paved Sandton! Whatever shall we say when we are next in London?'