Dunoon is a melting pot of people who have made Cape Town home in the hope of a better future. The socio-economic circumstances many find themselves in are fertile ground for dissatisfaction with those in power, those perceived to have more and just life in general.
Coupled with election fever, which makes politicians behave like delinquents, it makes the situation very volatile.
The wave of rioting in Dunoon seems to go on unabated, leading, this week, to looting of foreigners’ shops.
Housing and service-delivery gripes seem to be at the heart of the unrest, but the City of Cape Town says its hands are tied because of a lack of available land.
This week’s rioting is a grim reminder of the 2008 xenophobic violence that rocked the township. It forced many foreigners to flee, losing their homes and livelihoods in the process, and dented the country’s image abroad.
Revisiting that madness would do no good to a country whose rainbow-nation appeal already seems to have faded considerably.