South Africa-The Blame Game

SOUTH AFRICA

The Blame Game

Five people died on Monday after anti-immigrant demonstrators began attacking foreigners and looting their shops in Johannesburg, South African police said.

Authorities arrested more than 180 people in the riots, which have become increasingly common in the country, Al Jazeera reported.

A recent report by the African Center for Migration & Society, which has monitored attacks on foreigners in South Africa for decades, called them a “longstanding” feature of post-apartheid South Africa.

About 8 percent of South Africa’s 50 million people are migrants.

The newspaper also said many locals attribute the recent violence to frustration over the country’s high unemployment rate, which is about 28 percent.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people on the continent have condemned the violence, using the hashtag #SayNoToXenophobia.