Foreign shop owners buy their stock from South African providers. They fill their vans at South African fuel stations. They give credit to poor South Africans. Their shops feed South Africans. They even buy their legal and illegal guns from South Africans.
So why do (some) South Africans attack and loot them? Jealous of their business skills? Easy targets because the police won't stop the criminals because they are as xenophobic as the attackers?
And the government's reaction? Head in the sand. Denialism. It is not xenophobia, even if only foreign-owned shops are attacked. As with the 2008 attacks, officials can't accept reality.
Just like they refuse to see the corruption-rot and the ANC infighting. Just like they refuse to see that cadre deployment is a key cause for failed delivery.
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