He has been widely criticised for his silence on xenophobic violence thus far‚ but President Jacob Zuma is expected to address the crisis in the National Assembly on Thursday‚ the newspaper reports.

Zuma gave a precursor of what he would say when he acknowledged‚ in an interview with the SABC on Wednesday night‚ that his administration’s tardy response to socio-economic frustrations might be fuelling the mayhem.

’…we as the government have not been very quick in addressing these issues‚’’ Zuma said‚ but added: “I can’t accept that when there are challenges we use violence‚ particularly against our brothers and sisters from the continent.”

He said there was a need to find a way to avoid friction‚ to ‘’avoid people taking their frustrations into their own hands and out on people from outside the country’’.