Coloured vision breeds violence

The South African defence forces are back on the streets trying desperately to ensure calm. President Thabo Mbeki, who has been criticised for his lack of leadership during a week of trouble fuelled by resentment toward foreign workers, finally and reluctantly approved the army's deployment. What started as anti-immigrant violence could easily escalate, especially in a country as ethnically diverse as South Africa. It may have the sobriquet "The Rainbow Nation" but there is no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

Violence has already spread beyond Johannesburg. There are an estimated five million foreign blacks in South Africa, at least three million of them Zimbabweans who fled the tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe. These figures show that there is a real potential for the violence to get worse. Add to that already toxic mixture the frustration that many South Africans feel over their lack of opportunities and it is not hard to see an escalation rather than a reduction in violence. It may not happen this week or even this month or year but unless ordinary South Africans feel they have a stake in the economy the possibility of more violence remains.