By Thursday last week (May 22), rumours were abounding. First it had been reported that a man arrested in a township had been paid by foreigners to stir up unrest, then the story was denied by the South African Police Service. The National Intelligence Service (NIA) hinted in a speech on Thursday about right-wing elements at work. Politicians at the provincial and national lever were saying that the attacks were "politically motivated" with hints of involvement of the Inkhata Freedom Party (IFP) - an angle DoDo also approached in the diary. But by Thursday, and no evidence to show for, I was starting to get suspicious of a blame game unfolding, because the ANC government was still dazzling in its incompetence. Mbeki ordered the involvement of the army on Wednesday night (wisely kept under the direction of the SAPS) and then jetted off to Tanzania. The IFP lashed out:

'Third force' allegations abound : Mail & Guardian Online

Reacting, IFP secretary general Musa Zondi said that claims of IFP involvement were "propaganda", as members of all political parties are involved in the attacks. "It is mischievous to single out the IFP. There's no denial that members of the IFP, ANC and PAC are involved in this, across the board. Hostel dwellers are not IFP members only. They belong to the other parties as well. Sanco members are also involved," said Zondi.

Which described how I then viewed the attacks. Which doesn't say much, perhaps, but there you have it.

By Friday, Trevor Manuel, finance minister and a main architect for South Africa's economy, already came out swinging and put the finger on the sore spot that really mattered, involving no third force:

Mail & Guardian Online:

"To paraphrase [Harvard panel chair] Ricardo Hausman: you have an 18-year-old and he can't do maths, you wait a few years and you have 30-year-old who can't do maths and has less hope. What do you want to do about it?

"There are young people out there who just have no hope. Mines are no longer employing you, farms are no longer employing you -- there is just the sense of alienation. You are there, there are many others like you, you know that you are much poorer and you try to link that fault to someone else."

This implies a far more pragmatic conversation about labour-market reform and government measures that get better results from the education system. Manuel is visibly frustrated by what he sees as the capture of economic debate by ideological blocs.

For me, the kicker came when the Mail & Guardian relentlessly laid bare the origin of the "third force" claims, straight from the apartheid years under P. W. Botha, the old crocodile. An origin about which I had no previous knowledge, as I was still flying kites and dreaming about astronauts in those years. Apparently:

AfricaFiles | Political violence and the "third force"

The foundations of the "third force" lie in the policy of "total strategy" as enunciated and put into effect by the former state president P.W. Botha. This total strategy demanded a `total defence', both physical and psychological. To co-ordinate this strategy, direct links between the army, the security police, business and local government structures were formed. The Joint Management Councils, corresponding to nine Defence Commando areas, became the instruments of defence against "communism" as well as for winning the hearts and minds of the local communities. Joint Management Councils were accountable, through structural links, to the State Security council, thereby allowing the state, through its security apparatus, to penetrate civil society.

This penetration by the state created structural networks and personal allegiances that have proved difficult to untangle in the process of transition. And given that Inkatha supported participation in local government - to the point that some of its members ended up on the Joint Management Councils - and that the extra-parliamentary opposition boycotted the state-sponsored structures, it was inevitable that ideological and personal links between state security personnel and Inkatha councillors were cemented in this union. And as the community/town council system and the tribal authorities, both so closely tied into the structures of the apartheid state, became objects of attack by the disenfranchised in the early 1980's, the state security apparatus became even more entangled in the task of baldly effecting control through local political structures.

14 years after invoking the third force to explain part of the black-on-black violence in 1994 (which at the time was becoming a very real risk of tearing up the country), a similar third force had remerged to stir up political strife?

Let's just say that I find this an extremely doubtful assault, given the economic disparity in this country.  This defence has made the ANC government a shooting target and has resulted in another stronger call for Mbeki to resign (which will not happen as long as Zuma hovers in the background). Because he doesn't seem to know any more what the issue should be about.

Echoing Manuel, it is this that should be discussed, 14 years after apartheid:

That, and Zimbabwe.

The violence is ending, but the aftermath remains. The spirit of South Africa is still alive:

Star

Residents of Masiphumelele extended a hand of friendship to foreign nationals, mainly Somalis, who fled the township when criminals attacked them and looted their businesses.

On Saturday residents, led by community leaders, went from door to door to retrieve stolen goods and report the perpetrators to police.

Fish Hoek Methodist minister Vuyo Ngwenyana said: "No one has the right to cast out another human being. We say to perpetrators that if there is a problem, violence is not the way to solve it. There are peaceful ways of dealing with problems and you can't enrich yourself by robbing and hurting others.

"We want to help get displaced people back here and need to say to them we are very sorry and we want them back. They belong here."

But an estimated 20.000 Mozambicans have returned to Mozambique:

Mozambicans flee over the border : Mail & Guardian Online

Mozambique has received nearly 20 000 citizens fleeing South Africa, said Deputy Foreign Minister Henrique Banze, adding that the government there had set up three reception centres around the capital Maputo.

More than 18 000 people had passed through the Ressano Garcia border
post, said Banze, while a further 1 850 people fleeing violence in South Africa's province of KwaZulu-Natal had entered through the Ponta de Ouro border post.

The reception centres had been opened -- at the border post, near the national airport and adjacent township Maputo River outside the city -- to provide "temporary shelter to returning nationals who cannot be transported to their homes immediately," he said.

The government has hired 19 buses to transport the migrants to their homes and half of the returnees who came through the Ponta de Ouro border post had been assisted, he said.

"We are using trucks to transport people who are returning through Ponta de Ouro because of the bad state of the road," said Banze.

He denied reports that the Mozambican government had declared a state of emergency.

"It is a disaster, but we have not classified it as yet," Banze said.

Tens of thousands remain cooped up at police stations, churches, community centres or are adrift, the NGO's are stretched and the government has yet to lay out a decisive plan.

How does a country go on from here?