I agree with Rebecca. Scare mongering and false. I can't even begin to explain how false it is.
I lived there for almost 15 years, both in Johannesburg and Cape Town. I know many people who live in both cities and others around the country.
I think, this is a classic case of "don't believe everything you see on the news or the internet". I'm not saying what is happening is false, it is. There are riots, there is violence. I saw a picture of a burning mall in a link that was shared. I don't know, but I would check the sources. It wouldn't be the first time a picture of a past incident has been used to add fuel to the fire of a present one.
Even the numbers make me skeptical. Doesn't mean they're wrong, but I'd rather be skeptical than believe what is shown, just because.
I don't blindly trust a single thing people say anymore online, in the news. I'd rather speak to people who are there and who can say what's going on. And I mean, talk to them directly.
This wouldn't be the first time there has been violence in SA. When I was there, we lived through two xenophobic waves. With a lot of destruction and looting, and killing. But seeing the way news is shared and written today, it wouldn't surprise me if things were blown way out of proportion and even if some footage or pictures were not even from the current events; but because people aren't really going to take the time to research it to make sure what they're being told is as factual as possible, they just run with it.
That's my personal take on this.