‘As bad as apartheid SA’: Xenophobia riots spark anti-SA backlash – NYT

Some weeks back, an aggressive man kicked my car and waved his fist at me after I kept a parking spot for an acquaintance who got to the bay before he could. After I opened my mouth to respond and he heard I was from South Africa, his anger ratcheted up to a new level. "Go back to where you come from, you f—ing monkey. We don't want you here," he shouted, as an off-duty policeman stepped in to move him away from my vehicle before things really got ugly. I was literally shaking with fear. That was in the UK, where English nationalism has fuelled anti-Europe, anti-other sentiment and the move to Brexit. I mention this incident to illustrate the point that xenophobia is not uniquely South African, or black-on-black. It happens everywhere, all the time. Unfortunately South Africa's apartheid legacy and the label it carries for racism mean the country is vulnerable to being singled out for ethnicity-related bad deeds. – Jackie Cameron

By Thulasizwe Sithole

South Africa is, in many ways, synonymous with racism. Whites can't shrug off the white-on-black cruelty in the apartheid era and now black South Africans have developed a reputation for hatred-fuelled violence against black people from elsewhere on the continent.

The New York Times has pulled together the threads of a week in which South Africa has made the headlines for violence around the country. Missing from the key narrative are the investment opportunities in the resource-rich sub-Saharan country, even though South Africa played host to the World Economic Forum in Cape Town.

The US-based media outlet highlights the following developments:

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