As a wave of anti-immigrant violence sweeps through Johannesburg's townships, President Thabo Mbeki has warned his critics not to exaggerate the crisis. Speaking to the media this morning, Mbeki said that xenophobia was a syndrome and not a genuine phobia. He added that he has never personally known anyone with xenophobia.

Over 22 people have been killed in the escalating violence, with mobs of South Africans apparently trying to purge foreigners from the townships around Johannesburg. However, Mbeki told the press not to jump to conclusions.

Citing "exhaustive research done on the Internet last night", Mbeki explained that the word 'xenophobia' was wildly inaccurate and was leading to a misdiagnosis of the current violence.

"We need to be less eager to believe in this thing called xenophobia," he said. "Arachnophobia, yes. Spiders are horrible. But what is a xeno? There is no such thing."

However he added that the word was most commonly used in an African context.

"This makes me wonder whether in fact 'xeno' isn't perhaps some sort of racist codeword for an African," he said. "I ask you. Just because there is an X in front of a word, does that make it automatically African?"

Mbeki was also quick to reassure the international community, specifically world football governing body FIFA.

"I want to tell all those players, administrators and fans who are coming here in 2010, please do not worry.

"By all accounts the violence is being fuelled by criminal elements, and by the belief that foreigners are stealing our jobs and our women."

He said that as long as international visitors stayed away from criminals and did not ask out local girls or set up discount spaza shops in townships, they were "unlikely to be set on fire".

Opposition parties have been calling on Mbeki to enforce law and order by sending the South African National Defence Force into the townships, but Mbeki dismissed this out of hand.

"This is not an acceptable solution. The SANDF has spent the last ten years training for African peacekeeping missions. Our soldiers are totally focused on only one thing, and that is shooting at small groups of Burundians and so forth who are running away with their possessions on their heads.

"There would be a bloodbath, and FIFA have insisted that we keep bloodbaths to a minimum before 2010."

However he said that his government was setting up a task team whose role would be to "ask difficult questions".

"For example, if you set a Zimbabwean on fire and there's no-one from FIFA around to see it, did it really happen? And more importantly, if it did happen, how is it my problem?"

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