Mbeki has spoken

The government has now back-pedalled on its initial claim that a “third force” was behind the recent wave of attacks on foreigners. Themba Maseko, the government’s spokesperson, said this week that the violence could not be attributed to a single cause and that it was the result of a “complex set of factors”.

He said the Cabinet had noted that genuine concerns about access to services were being “exploited and misused” and used as the rationale to attack the foreigners.

On whether there was a failure by intelligence agencies to warn of the violence, Maseko said the Cabinet believed these agencies were “doing their best”, and the fact that they were not able to tell when the violence would erupt “does not necessarily amount to a major intelligence failure”.

While that great teacher, hindsight, would have it that the government should have acted earlier, it would surely have been no easy thing to dispel tensions. Why fix something that isn’t broken, or in this case, not quite broken, the government’s reasoning probably went.

“Of course we were aware there was something brewing. It is one thing to know there is a social problem and another thing to know when that outburst will occur,” Intelligence Minister Ronnie said on May 22.

The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that President Thabo Mbeki flew to Maputo on May 14 and African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma flew to London to attend his daughter’s graduation on May 20. Deputy President Phumzile-Mlambo Ngcuka also had urgent business in Slovakia on May 22.

What is damning is that Mbeki only saw fit to condemn the attacks on May 19, more than a week after the outbreak on May 11. Why did he take so long? Why not a strongly worded statement on May 12?

The president, stung no doubt from the aspersions, was moved this week to defend the government’s response. Here’s what he said: “There is a government of the Republic of South Africa and we discussed all these things, all elements of this problem. Indeed, have taken various decisions at different points about people visiting the areas.

“But there is a whole range of other decisions also that have to do first of all with the deployment of police, later use of the national defence force. The government of South Africa will respond to these matters using all of people and resources at its command.”

The president has spoken.

FULL SPEED AHEAD	NOT SO FAST
Hugh Glenister This Johannesburg businessman’s court bid to stop the government from disbanding the Scorpions failed — it was originally considered a shot in the dark by legal observers — but it was a brave attempt at what many South Africans must feel is the right thing to do: opposing the African National Congress’s onslaught on the Scorpions.	Ehud Olmert The Israeli leader is seriously damaged goods. Barely a year passes without a senior minister begging him to go. This week, an American businessman testified that he gave Olmert $150 000 in cash-stuffed envelopes over 15 years. Now, even if Olmert got a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas or with Syria, he lacks the moral authority to force such a deal through.

Most-read stories
May 22 to 28

Combined 1. Is this the end of the rainbow nation?
There is a free concert in Johannesburg on Sunday. It is Africa Day and leading artists from across the continent will perform live. The theme is “united in diversity”.

Combined 1. Mbeki’s rule in limbo as townships burn
President Thabo Mbeki faces an uphill battle to remain politically relevant in his last year in office after his failure to contain an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of foreign workers in South Africa.

2. Xenophobia: An evil excuse for laziness
So many people have given so many reasons why xenophobia is rampant in South Africa, but none truly convinces.

3. NIA: Violence deliberately unleashed
The recent wave of so-called xenophobic violence had been deliberately unleashed ahead of next year’s general election, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director General Manala Manzini said at a Cape Town conference of African intelligence heads on Thursday.

4. ‘Deliberate effort’ behind attacks
South Africa’s security chief on Friday accused rightwingers linked to the former apartheid government of fanning xenophobic violence that has spread to Cape Town, the second largest city and tourist centre.

5. ‘We should not look for scapegoats’
A Somali community in Johannesburg on Thursday accused police of firing live ammunition at its members as more xenophobic attacks were reported in Gauteng and former Cabinet minister Kader Asmal questioned claims of “third force” involvement in the attacks.

6. Has Mpshe saved the Scorpions?
A desperate court action to save the Scorpions received a major boost this week when the acting prosecutions boss, Mokotedi Mpshe, submitted a last-minute affidavit that laid bare government’s dishonesty in dealing with the matter.

7. SA’s stature battered by migrant killings
South Africa’s aspirations to lead the continent are being shredded by the xenophobic mobs who have hacked, shot and beaten to death at least 42 African migrants in the land where apartheid was defeated.

8. Xenophobia: Why the police blew it
Police capacity to handle riots was virtually destroyed in a restructuring exercise in 2006, leaving officers ill-equipped to handle the wave of xenophobic violence that has swept the country in the past two weeks, researchers say.

9. Dead Mbeki-ites walking
Deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana are set to announce their withdrawal from politics as the curtain falls on the Thabo Mbeki era.

10. Hunted by gangs, migrants flee flames
George Mhanda came to Johannesburg to feed his family, struggling to eat under Robert Mugabe’s derelict rule.