Where has all the violence gone?

The anti-foreigner upsurge in Gauteng has subsided almost as quickly as it erupted — and everyone has a different theory about why.

Gauteng spokesperson for the South African Police Service Govindsamy Mariemuthoo insisted police intervention was the major factor.

‘The army came out only when the violence had already subsided. They were playing only a supportive role in any case,” Mariemuthoo said.

Another theory, favoured by the Gauteng ANC, is that community members called a halt to the violence.

At an ANC regional general council meeting on Tuesday Gauteng ANC chairperson Paul Mashatile praised the role of the Soweto community, saying residents intervened to ensure that the attacks did not spread to their area.

Last weekend it was reported that residents of Alexandra had stood up to the mob, confining the violence to an area between 1st and 6th avenues and the fatalities in the township to two.

Gauteng ANC spokesperson Nkenke Kekana said local ANC leaders physically confronted rioters and ‘took back the streets”.

‘The source of the attacks was mostly in hostels, where criminal elements contest the space,” he told the Mail & Guardian this week. ‘The attacks stopped because residents realised they were being used by criminals and sinister forces.”

Provincial government spokesperson Thabo Masebe said the violence was ‘toned down” by the police crackdown in the affected areas and that in many areas community members, with help from their leaders, decided to put an end to the attacks.

Johannesburg hostel dwellers interviewed this week said the turmoil subsided because of the intervention of the army and political leaders — particularly Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

An IFP member of the Gauteng legislature, Sibongile Nkomo, said the combined efforts of the ANC and IFP were critical. ‘It was important for us to go to people and say this has to stop. If government doesn’t deliver you must go for government, not for other people,” Nkomo said.

Human rights commissioner Jody Kollapen believed the expressions of outrage by a large portion of South Africans exercised a key influence.

‘It sent a clear message to those responsible that this is not the way to go about things,” Kollapen said.

He said that the humanitarian support given to the victims of the attacks showed the perpetrators that they had little public support.

Additional reporting by Thembelihle Tshabalala