Cape Town riots – a whiff of xenophobia in the wind? [Video]

Violent protests rocked the centre of Cape Town today after a service delivery protest that started with sabotage of Metrorail train services (Cape Town’s metropolitan railway commuter company) developed into a free-for-all. Several shops reportedly run by non-South African citizens are reported to have been looted, with the city centre’s many foreign-born vendors and informal traders especially hard-hit. The DA has blamed the violence on the ANC, whom it accuses of conducting an ‘ungovernability campaign’ in South Africa’s only opposition-run province. Whoever is to blame, some of the city’s very poorest are very much out of pocket tonight while thousands of train commuters will be forced to find an alternative means of getting home.

A close-up of the riots was taken by Youtube user M3zza9:

Warning: video expresses anti-ANC views

 

In this video by Youtube user Spenelo, bemused office staff watch the developing unrest from high above St George’s Street, Cape Town. The tone changes from banter to concern as the onlookers realise that what they’re seeing is far from peaceful.

Warning: profanity

 

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