After the rain

As usual we went to church in Mamelodi this morning, for the Hours and Readers Service (Obednitsa), and sang "Many Years" to old Mary Nthite, whose name day it was yesterday.

The sun was shining brightly after the wet and cloudy weather of the last few days, with fluffy white cumulus clouds, and even the old and rather rundown shopping centre looked quite attractive.



On the way home, in East Lynne, we passed a stretch limo that indicates that World Cup fever is beginning to bite.



But it seems that our national team will be nowhere near ready. But we've still got a few months to get the national anthem right, however, after the fiasco at a rugby match in France last week. We lost that match, too.

The "third force" behind xenophobic violence?

Could the ugly face of capitalism be behind the violence against foreigners that we have seen over the last couple of months?

There have been taxi wars in the past, now it seems to have spread to other businesses.

clipped from www.rekord.co.za Foreigners say the senseless violence in Atteridgeville and Mamelodi has been brewing for months. Members of the Burundian and Rwandan communities say the attacks are planned and co-ordinated. Abdul Hakim Mohamed, chairperson of the Somali Community Board of South Africa, says he believes there is a deeper cause for the widespread xenophobic violence. “Rival business owners in the communities we serve, see us as serious competition.” He claims that some local business owners actually pay youngsters in townships to loot and burn foreign businesses. Abdul gave Rekord a copy of what he said was a written threat from a Mamelodi business organisation. Abdul says he handed the letter to the Mamelodi East police but no action was taken. Director Nkisikwethu Sithole, from the Mamelodi East police, denied receiving the letter. “If we receive more evidence on this matter we will start an investigation,” he says.