Gauteng City-Region Observatory
This is a case study of the violence of May 2008 was by far the most devastating event of its kind since apartheid ended in 1994 in South Africa. Although not exclusively, a considerable number of foreign nationals were attacked and killed. They lost their belongings as their houses were burnt and property looted. Media reports revealed that by the end of May 2008, 62 people had been killed and thousands of people displaced. Although the violence manifested itself in xenophobic attacks, the underlying causes of the violence go beyond xenophobic tendencies and also include poor service delivery, high levels of unemployment, poverty, corruption and competition for resources chand/or opportunities.