The government deserves praise for organising yesterday's national memorial tribute for the victims of the recent xenophobic violence.

The government deserves praise for organising yesterday's national memorial tribute for the victims of the recent xenophobic violence.

But that does not absolve it from guilt for having created the problem.

The memorial was a significant symbolic event. It will help heal the wounds left by the deadly violence.

South Africans needed a platform to show remorse for the barbaric actions of their countrymen.

The memorial service would be of even greater value if it enthused most of us to support these poor people and to help efforts to reintegrate them into our communities.

The Home Affairs drive to provide them with identity documents is a step in the right direction. But Pretoria should not adopt overambitious targets for this.

Uncomfortable as they are, some of the de facto refugee camps might well be with us much longer than the thumbsucked July deadline for their abolition.