Xenophobic Violence Makes Headline on CNNi's Amanpour

The current Xenophobic outbreak seen across South Africa headlined today's edition on CNNi's (DStv 401) flagship programme, Amanpour (guest hosted by CNN Correspondent Fred Pleitgen ).

Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, was the first guest on the programme, and straight off the bat mentioned that South Africa welcomes immigrants from across the South African continent and that they [ SA citizens I suppose] appreciate their contribution to the country's economy and that nothing justifies the current violence. He also mentioned that the president has put together a task team to deal with the issue.  He then spoke about what has been done, including who they met with, including the Zulu king and groups representing foreigners.

Fred then asked whether the fact that the government was helping those that want to leave the country do so sent a message that they not really wanted in South Africa, to which Gigaba responded that they doing this to not put these individuals in harm's way. Gigaba also mentioned that it was an 'exaggeration' that the leadership of South Africa contributed to the current situation.

The next guest was 'popular' political commentator Eusibius McKaiser [who appeared on SABC3's 3 Talk with Noleen for the final time earlier in the day] who immediately got to respond to Gigaba's comments, which he said though had a few good points, over stated the on the ground presence to deal with the issues. He then continued to paint South Africa with a very negative brush, stating that 'all' South Africans speak the language of violence and highighted that SOuth Africa has the worst inequality 'in the world,' unemployment is 40%, higher than what it actually is (both that of the active and inactive labour force). They could really have found a better guest to discuss the issue, and I will leave it at that.

Overall, the segment which lasted 14 minutes, half of the programme, did not add very much that viewers did not already know and lacked the depth local broadcasters were able to provide.

The segment can be found below: