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A wave of horrifying violence has swept the townships around Johannesburg in the past week, The Globe and Mail's Stephanie Nolen reported in an article Tuesday Xenophobic rage explodes in South Africa.

At least 22 people are dead, hundreds injured and an estimated 4,000 have been left homeless, most of them refugees and immigrants from other African countries.

"The sudden eruption of xenophobic savagery has forced South Africans into a moment of uncomfortable self-reckoning, as the newspapers and TV screens fill with images of ethnic-based brutality of a kind not seen since the darkest days of apartheid, and considered part of the past in this country, which fancies itself to be Africa's beacon of democracy and tolerance."

The attacks began in Alexandra Township and have spread to at least nine other poor, black communities. Foreigners are the ostensible target, although hundreds of native South Africans have also fled their homes in fear, seeking shelter in the yards of police stations and churches.

Why is this happening, and why now? We are pleased that Ms. Nolen is online from noon to 1 p.m. ET to try answer your questions about this horrifying convulsion of violence. Your questions and answers will appear at the bottom of this page.

Ms. Nolen is the Africa correspondent for The Globe and Mail. She has reported from more than 40 countries around the world, including two dozen in Africa. She has a particular mandate to cover the impact of the HIV-AIDS pandemic in Africa.

Last year, Ms. Nolen was awarded the PEN Canada/Paul Kidd Courage Prize for her extensive coverage of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Her book 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa, was a finalist for this year's Governor-General's Literary Award for non-fiction.

Ms. Nolen's coverage of AIDS in Africa won the 2003 National Newspaper Award for International Reporting, and she won the award again a year later for reporting on the aftermath of Rwanda's genocide. She was also nominated for the 2004 award for Explanatory Journalism for work on AIDS. She was the recipient of both the 2003 and the 2004 Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Reporting, for reports from war zones in Uganda and Sudan. She was nominated a third time, in 2006, for the NNA in foreign reporting. This year, she won the 2007 NNA in the explanatory work category for a story on how vaccinations, mosquito nets and vitamins are saving lives.

Prior to her posting in Africa, Ms. Nolen covered development issues and conflicts, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has also reported on issues including the wars in Sudan, the political crisis in Zimbabwe and the peace process in Sierra Leone. She now lives in Johannesburg, where she continues to learn isiZulu, her fifth language.

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements.

Estanislao (Stan) Oziewicz, globeandmail.com Foreign Editor: Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. I'd like to start, if I may, by asking whether this violence against foreigners just came out of the blue or has this pot been ready to overboil for some time and we just haven't been paying attention to the signs.

Ms. Nolen: Thanks, Stan. South Africa has had a xenophobia problem for a long time. A few days ago, I found these words from former president Nelson Mandela, speaking in Alexandra township, where this violence all began last week, and where he lived when he first came to Johannesburg as a young man. He said, "During the years I lived here, the people of Alexandra ignored tribal and ethnic distinctions. Instead of being Xhosas, or Sothos, or Zulus, or Shangaans, we were Alexandrians. We were one people, and we undermined the distinctions that the apartheid government tried so hard to impose. It saddens and angers me to see the rising hatred of foreigners. We had a legacy of unity and solidarity here. This great legacy has been undermined by recent attacks on foreigners some of whom are naturalized citizens. We cannot blame other people for our troubles."

What startled me was that he said it, not last week, but in 1995. There have been periodic attacks on foreigners — I hear about them every month or two — certainly since the transition to democracy 15 years ago. Somali shopkeepers, who are accused of undercutting local competitors, are a popular target; and Zimbabweans are a regular target of ire, because many of the refugees are well-educated and get jobs here — they are a vast pool of skilled labour who will work extremely cheaply.

The attitude of the government has done little to soothe that xenophobia: the Department of Home Affairs is notorious for the harsh, often corrupt, way that it treats the often-traumatized refugees who arrive here.

All of that said, I don't think anyone anticipated anything like the kind of widespread and brutal violence we have seen here in the past week.

Jay B., from Canada: The violence is truly shocking, clearly a reflection of economic despair. Good government is sorely required in many African states. It would be immoral for those who are better off not to extend a hand up. Your thoughts?

Ms. Nolen: Jay, I was thinking when I was in atownship still smoldering from a riot, earlier this week, that one could see in it both the best and the worst of South Africa: the devastation and the wounded people and the men still roaming the streets armed with sticks — but also the carloads of people, often people who were themselves quite poor, pouring in with blankets and food and clothes for the displaced. I don't know about "immoral" but I can tell you many people here are helping. The violence reflects economic despair, but also a deep sense of political marginalization, and frustration with the unrealized promises of the new democratic era.

But also, I think, it reflects the culture of impunity that has taken root in South African in the past few years: a man facing extremely grave corruption charges, recently acquitted of rape in a dubious trial, is about to become president. The existing president is maneuvering to fire the national prosecutor because he, the prosecutor, is trying to take down the head of the national police for allegedly working with the mob. In this sort of environment, someone who is hungrily eyeing his neighbour's house or TV has no reason to think he will face punishment for snatching what he wants — especially if that neighbour is a helpless illegal immigrant.

Cathy Gillies, from Canada: I had the good fortune of visiting South Africa in 1999 when my brother lived in Johannesburg. His housekeeper was from Zimbabwe and unfortunately died of AIDS. I would sincerely hope that the people of South Africa who are contributing to this violence would remember their own history and support the oppressed of Zimbabwe.

Ms. Nolen: Cathy, there is certainly a dark irony, for anyone familiar with the history of South Africa, in its people attacking citizens of Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Mozambique, of course, lived through a brutal proxy war sponsored by the apartheid government; Zimbabwe hosted the ANC leadership in exile and endured bombings and raids because of it.

That said, the people I talk to who are responsible for this violence don't see it as ironic at all. They weren't in exile, they may not be ANC members, and they don't feel like they personally have any debt of gratitude to pay — rather they are focused on what they feel they are owed. They don't seem to feel that there's any particular parallel with their own history of oppression by the white-rule government and their attacks on their foreign neighbours, whom they view as cheating them of scarce resources.

Marian Olson, from Canada: I do hope the people of Africa are able to connect the dots and realize that this current crisis has its origins in the unqualified support that Thabo Mbeki has provided for that homicidal tyrant next door, his good friend Robert Mugabe. Anyone with a bit of integrity and intelligence would have 'encouraged' Mr. Mugabe to 'retire' to a neutral country years ago, thus ending the flow of millions of refugees. Who would not flee with whatever one could carry? What country would not be destabilized by such a flood? Add in economic mismanagement (the current energy crisis has been looming for years; overpopulation; environmental degradation; poor infrastructure; and ongoing tribalism) the current disaster is almost inevitable. Alas, only Africans can rescue Africa. Do you agree, Ms. Nolen?

Ms. Nolen: Ms. Olson, thanks for your questions. At the risk of belabouring a point I make in all of these online discussions, I am not comfortable talking about the "people of Africa." This event is happening in South Africa. I was just in Senegal, a peaceful, prospering place; a week before that, I was in Sierra Leone, which still has serious problems, but is dramatically improved from my last visit there. Africa is 59 very different countries; there is only one of them with xenophobic riots this week. Certainly Mr. Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" policy in Zimbabwe has proven to be a failure, and his own mix of personal arrogance and unwillingness to let a fellow liberation movement, ZANU-PF, lose power, has exacerbated Zimbabwe's terrible crisis. One result is the flood of three million Zimbabwean refugees into South Africa — who have strained social services, and taken some scarce jobs, and thus earned the enmity of South Africans. But clearly Mr. Mbeki had been "encouraging" Mr. Mugabe to step down for some time; the Zimbabwean president has shown himself quite uninterested in career advice from outsiders.

With regard to your other points, I must say that I have never heard of South Africa having an "overpopulation" problem. I'm also not sure about the idea of "ongoing tribalism" — I think in many ways this country is remarkable for the degree to which it has succeeded in uniting a dozen ethnic groups in one nation. The energy crisis, indeed, was predictable and no doubt contributes to tempers being short here. But "only Africans can rescue other Africans"? South Africa needs bold and effective leadership at this moment, and it's going to have to come from South Africans. Zimbabweans need intervention by neighbouring states — but ultimately Zimbabweans will need to act to end their own crisis. And I think, as always, that we need to be very careful extrapolating from this particular crisis to the whole continent: we don't say that "Asians must rescue other Asians" because the junta in Myanmar won't let in aid, and we can't say it about Africa either.

Matthew Liebenberg, from Toronto: The South African government alleges that this xenophobic violence has been orchestrated by some sinister "third force"and the intelligence service has been instructed to investigate this issue. Interestingly enough, a spokesperson for Zimbabwean refugees also hinted that the attacks against foreigners are orchestrated. Is there any evidence of such orchestration and by whom? Or is the government simply trying to shift the blame for its own ineptitude?

Ms. Nolen: Thanks for the question, Matthew. I have heard the "third force" allegation from a number of people but nobody has been able to give me a convincing explanation of who this force might be or who stands to gain from any of this. It's hard to believe that there isn't some level of organization in these attacks, but that may be as simple as a neighbourhood committee or a loose ethnic association of people. I think that South Africans with a clear memory of the apartheid government "third force" that sponsored the supposed ethnic violence in the early 1990s want to believe that some sinister force is behind this, because that's less painful than believing it really is people turning on their neighbours.

Ian B., from Canada: The violence against migrant workers and undocumented refugees in South Africa did not come up suddenly. It certainly has its history. How do you explain the prolonged silence of people like Thabo Mbeki and Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the issue?

Ms. Nolen: Ian, the first person to speak out on this - and the most impassioned and critical voice to date - was Archbishop Tutu. He's clearly heartbroken by this new, ugly image of his "rainbow nation." Unfortunately, he is viewed by many South Africans, certainly by the disenfranchised young people involved in this violence, as a marginal, last-generation political figure.

Mr. Mbeki's silence is truly astounding - his only real comment to date was an elaborate discourse on humanity and diversity, delivered on television in English, more than a week after this all started. He has yet to visit an affected community. He and other political leaders in the ANC have made periodic statements, in the past (as you say, this is not a new issue) about tolerance and the importance of offering shelter to asylum seekers, but I don't think those meant very much to people struggling to survive in squatter camps. They see no progress on jobs or housing or ending crime, and they perceive foreigners as exacerbating all those problems, and so they think the government has little right to be asking for their tolerance.

William Lundy, from Ottawa: One can not but have some sympathy for the poor of South Africa's townships as they struggle to improve their lot in life and face a major influx of illegal migrants. The people who are most adversely affected but any government's inability or unwillingness to control illegal migration are those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid.  Zimbabweans are, of course, the largest number of such illegal migrants and this influx must be laid directly at the feet of Thabo Mbeki who has stood by and watch Robert Mugabe destroy what should have been South Africa's partner in fuelling the economic development of all of southern Africa.  The UNHCR and Canada also share responsibility for encouraging and assisting South Africa to establish a first world asylum system that South Africa could not afford.  People from all over the continent have come to South Africa, claimed asylum and simply stayed as the asylum system collapsed under the pressure of numbers.

Finally, South African leaders have been under pressure from other African states to dismantle the 'apartheid-era' immigration controls of visa requirements. This has allowed large numbers of other Africans to enter and then over-stay their authorized entry.  The CIDA funded Southern Africa Migration Project help South Africa to establish what is probably model immigration legislation; certainly better than Canada's current law. However, model legislation is not enough; there must also be the political will to enforce the hard parts of immigration law nor simply celebrate the soft parts. Do you agree, Ms. Nolen?

Ms. Nolen: Thank you, Mr. Lundy. I do agree, largely. South Africa has progressive legislation and has failed to live up to may parts of it (on this, and many other things, such as domestic violence or protection of the rights of people with HIV-AIDS.) The horror that is the Lindela detention camp, for example, where Zimbabweans are kept in shocking conditions before deportation - or the squatter camp that has sprung up around the Department of Home Affairs office in Johannesburg, where refugees wait in interminable lines for literally months to try to get papers - are vivid testament to a system that isn't working. In part this reflects the fact that the country doesn't have the resources to enforce that legislation (to patrol the borders effectively, for example) but there is also a basic lack of will to deal equitably with refugees and asylum seekers (of which, again, South Africa receives the world's largest number). That, I think, grows both from xenophobia on the part of staff in that system, and also a real sense that the country simply can't afford to host this many desperate people.

Mr. Oziewicz, Foreign Editor, globeandmail.com: Stephanie, as always, thanks so much for your on-the-ground knowledge and time. They are much appreciated by our online community of readers.