Unemployment, poverty, xenophobia - Triple threat behind spaza shop lootings: iLIVE

I was shocked for a moment when I heard about the lootings in Kagiso, but then when I watched the news and heard it had spread to Soweto I started to wonder "What happened to resolve the xenophobic attacks the last time?

Safe to say the government did not want to immediately attribute the cause of these attacks to xenophobia but one could only, on the outisde, find it difficult to tell the difference.

I think we as South Africans should be candid about the situation and concur that these attacks are born from a culmination of material conditions and, yes xenophobia.

As citizens of this democratic society, we should understand that South Africans are the best at claiming what belongs to them, be it in a correct and acceptable fashion or otherwise.

We should also note that South Africans are facing one of highest unemployment rates and we face a challenge of poverty in particular in black townships and rural areas.

The areas in which these attacks take place are townships where unemployment is rife and poverty a day to day struggle. It is also the places where the dreams of struggle heroes of a South Africa run and controlled by the black majority were born and are yet to be realized.

The challenged of poverty has a long history among the black society, especially in townships hence one might even forget that it has a major impact on the outlook of people about life.

The poor need a reason to explain why they are poor and they need to find a solution to that poverty. Protest for free housing is one major indicator of the depth of the problem and its ability to turn violent on the assumed enemy that is the government of the day.

The fact that a looter sees giving away someone else's property as a duty to the poor is an indication that poverty is a constant, day to day reality in these communities.

Unemployment  leaves one feeling destitute, useless, worthless and dependent. All these feelings are felt by the more than two thirds of young people of the 25% unemployment rate. When one cannot find employment or finds it 'impossible' to start a business then one must find someone or something to blame.

Xenophobia? South Africans don't seem to be perceived as Africans by other African states. Sometimes I think we forget that we are Africans.

Listening to South Africans speak about the continent in the township one might get the sense that we are not an African state. When listening to some young people South Africans seem more like African Americans rather than South African. Former liberation struggle comrades speak about Africa as a place we yearn to belong as we share the same goal of independence from colonial powers.

So when the South African poor see others from other poor African countries living a better life they don't dare dream of moving to another country to survive. They feel that their space is being occupied, whether this feeling is correct or not it is there and it most definitely needs to be dealt with.

It is deliberate to attack only foreign owned spazas and this was done by instigators that knew the desperation their people face day by day.

Poverty, unemployment and xenophobia all have a part to play in this unfolding drama at a time when South Africans are in the struggle for economic freedom and if our leaders don't get down and dirty, and become straight shooters we will continue denying the xenophobic element in this predicament we find ourselves in.

We need to address all three without blurring the lines between what is wrong and what is right under our constitution.

Perhaps South Africa should draw lessons of how to deal with xenophobia from countries that have the same problem because ignoring it will only mean that we will be faced with another episode of this sort sooner than we think and perhaps as widespread as it was in 2008.