What is Necklacing? South African Violence Features Its Return

Anti-immigrant violence in South Africa has featured the return of an apartheid-era practice known as "necklacing." Necklacing consist of forcing a gasoline filled tire around a victim's chest and then setting it and the victim on fire.

Necklacing was used during the 1980s and 1990s in South Africa's poorer townships to deal with suspected collaborators with the then white majority regime. Though the African National Congress officially condemned the practice, necklacing was thought to have been carried out through the wishes of Winnie Mandela, the then wife of the then imprisoned Nelson Mandela, who eventually became the first president of a black majority South Africa.

Necklacing has also been employed in Haiti, Nigeria, and Brazil, in the latter country by drug gangs seeking to terrorize people into not cooperating with the authorities.

Anti-immigrant violence has risen in the South African townships due to resentment on the part of poor South Africans over the influx of refugees from surrounding African states, particularly Zimbabwe. The population of South Africa is currently about 45 million people, of which four million are estimated to be illegal immigrants. Some have suggested that the number of illegal refugees living in South Africa is much higher.

These refugees are willing to work for even lower wages than currently prevail in the townships during a time when unemployment in South Africa is roughly 20 percent.

So far, more than 40 people have been killed, some by necklacing, 28,000 people have been displaced, and hundreds of people have been arrested. The South African army is currently patrolling the townships in an effort to quell the violence. Nevertheless, violence has spread from Johannesburg to Durban

Social problems, including poverty, shortages of running water and electricity, inflation and rampant crime have added to the anger of poor South Africans. Much of the violent crime, which took 20,000 lives last year, has been blamed on the refugees.

The South African religious community has opened its arms to displaced refugees, providing shelter and food. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who had been a leader in the anti apartheid movement and is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has condemned the mob violence. "We human beings, ever since the Garden of Eden, are looking for scapegoats," Tutu, wrote in a newspaper oped. "We remain children of Adam and Eve, and have the genes for looking for excuses."

Besides the death toll and the anarchy, the anti immigrant violence has hit the value of South Africa's currency. Some fear that it will also affect the prospective hosting of the World Cup in 2010 by South Africa.

Sources: Necklacing, Wikipedia
"Necklace" Lynching Returns to South Africa, CNN, May 22nd, 2008
Fleeing Violence, Some Immigrants Leave South Africa, Barry Bearak, New York Times, May 22nd, 2008