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A new wave of xenophobic violence has erupted in South Africa, resulting in the killing of at least eight people, including a Zimbabwean, Elvis Nyathi (43).

One Nhlanhla Dhlamini (36) is inciting the attacks through his so-called Operation Dudula.

The brigands are moving around, attacking foreigners and foreign-owned businesses, claiming they are taking away their jobs and crowding out businesses owned by locals.

We have witnessed such criminality before; dozens of foreigners being killed, valuable property being looted and burnt and livelihoods being destroyed.

On Wednesday night last week, Nyathi, his wife and children were asleep when a gang raided his home and demanded their residents’ papers and passports.

They assaulted Nyathi, originally from Kezi, Matabeleland South, with iron bars and stones accusing him of being a criminal.

They later “necklaced” him, that decidedly barbaric murder routine whereby attackers place a motor vehicle tyre around the neck of their victim, sprinkle it with a flammable liquid and setting it alight.

The tyre and the victim erupt into flames.

Murder is blood-curdling, but necklacing is worse. It is worse than beastly.

It is hellish.

We are concerned that some in South Africa are taking the law into their own hands in this way, thinking that killing Nyathi or any other foreigner creates jobs for them, somehow.

They think that shutting down a business owned by a Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Pakistani, Mozambican or Ethiopian somehow, creates space for businesses owned by South Africans.

They appear not to know that violence is criminal and the responsibility of asking for a passport or identity document from someone belongs to police.

They appear not to know that shutting down businesses, damages an economy and is what actually destroys jobs.

This tells us that the xenophobes in South Africa are just criminals who pretend to be patriots out to create jobs for their compatriots.

And we know that these are a small band of bad apples whose actions only soil the name of peace-loving and law-abiding South Africans who are the majority.

These criminals must face the law.

President00’s response to Operation Dudula and the violence it has spawned has been reassuring.

A few days ago, he described them as vigilantes whose actions don’t demonstrate anything patriotic, just criminality.

He reiterated that position yesterday, adding that the attacks reminded all of the heartless violence that was routinely visited upon black South Africans by whites during apartheid.

Now, black South Africans are using apartheid tactics on fellow blacks, some who come from countries that helped South Africa defeat that system of extreme segregation of people of colour. An irony of ironies indeed.

“This was how the apartheid oppressors operated,” he said in a statement yesterday.

“They said some people could only live in certain areas, operate certain businesses or take certain jobs.

Under apartheid, black people were deemed suspects by default and stopped by police when found in so-called white areas. Black people were forced to produce a dompas and if they could not do so, they were jailed.

We cannot allow such injustices to happen again.

The events in the Gauteng township of Diepsloot last week were a tragedy.

In the course of a single weekend, seven people were killed, sparking protests.

This loss of life is deplorable, as is the killing of a fellow African from Zimbabwe allegedly at the hands of vigilantes.”

Crime is a challenge, as is immigration control he added, but they are both responsibilities of the government to tackle, said President Ramaphosa.

“Crime, not migrants, is the common enemy we must work together to defeat,” said President Ramaphosa.

“— Acts of lawlessness directed at foreign nationals, whether they are documented or undocumented, cannot be tolerated.

Attacking those we suspect of wrongdoing merely because they are a foreign national is not an act of patriotism.

It is immoral, racist and criminal.”

We totally agree with him. We urge our brothers and sisters in South Africa to heed President Ramaphosa’s call to respect the law.

We too urge them to live amicably with their brothers and sisters from elsewhere in Africa.

To foreigners, including our compatriots who are engaging in criminal activity, our message is they must depart from their ways.

If they commit crime, however, we trust South African police, not Dhlamini and his mindless gang, are competent to deal with that in terms of the law.