Current race riots like 1949 anti-Indian riots in SA?

The current xenophobic crisis in South Africa is comparable to the 1949 Zulu-Indian riots, the country's Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils has said.

"I liken it to the anti-Indian mayhem that erupted in Durban in 1949," Kasrils told a local newspaper in an interview, as he called on people to accept that describing the current situation as one of xenophobia was accurate.

"I accept that we have had a spontaneous outburst of xenophobia here - and I don't know why people have trouble with that word: it's accurate for what's going on."

Kasrils explained his reasoning for comparison to the ethnic violence in 1949, when Zulus and Indians who had lived peacefully side by side for decades in the sprawling Durban suburb of Cato Manor, clashed.

Thorugh