S Africa deploys army to control violence

Johannesburg: The army sent soldiers into the streets for the first time Thursday in raids aimed at quashing anti-foreigner violence that has killed at least 42 people and shredded South Africa's reputation as the continent's economic and political bastion of stability.

Government officials said they were working with international aid agencies to help repatriate terrified foreigners, particularly Mozambicans.

More than 13,000 foreigners have been forced out of their homes by the violence. At least 42 people have been killed, either burnt alive, stabbed, shot or beaten to death.

Two burned bodies were found on Thursday in a slum outside Johannesburg, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Mobs set shacks alight in the industrial sprawl outside Johannesburg.

Incidents of anti-foreigner violence continued to be reported in other parts of the country, including northern provinces near the borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Security Minister Charles Nqakula was to hold a meeting with his crisis task team in the face of mounting accusations that the government did too little too late.

President Thabo Mbeki finally gave the order late on Wednesday to call in the South African National Defense Force, for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Police, backed up by infantry battalion soldiers, made early morning swoops on three slums in downtown Johannesburg, which was the scene of some of the worst attacks at the weekend. The forces made 28 arrests and seized drugs, firearms and stolen property, said a police spokeswoman.

She said the cordon-and-search operations were conducted at three hostels whose residents were allegedly involved in inciting violence. She said it was "extremely successful."

"There were no incidents of violence during the operation."

Images of the naked hatred and black-on-black violence have made front pages around the world and deeply embarrassed the government, whose own leaders sought refuge in neighboring countries during white racist rule.