BBC NEWS | World | Africa | South Africa: Behind the violence
Bribery and corruption
For a number of years now this has led to allegations that they take bribes in return for housing and this has led to many protests.
In 2005, for example, residents in the town of Musina, close to the border with Zimbabwe, marched on the municipality to protest about the lack of action against certain councillors accused of giving houses to foreigners for money.
We must put a stop to this practice
Gwede Mantashe
ANC Secretary General
Housing crisis
Sinkie Makushu, chairman of the Greater Musina Unemployment Forum complained that they had provided ample evidence of corruption, but that no action was taken.
"The police have every bit of information regarding corruption at the municipality, but they keep saying they are still investigating," he said.
The previous year angry residents chased about 50 people out of RDP houses after claims that they were foreigners, who were paying rent or had bought the homes outright from local councillors.
Some of those evicted from the RDP houses produced bank receipts proving they were paying rent of 50 rand ($6.5) or more to some councillors. Other occupants said they had bought the houses for 6,500 rand ($850) each.
'Fertile ground'
Anger at the allocation of housing in return for payments has been seen in several places during the xenophobic attacks carried out over the past two weeks.
People living in Alexandra, on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the violence originated, said foreigners had jumped the low-cost housing allocation lists by paying bribes.
The government builds 180,000 houses a year but it is not enough
The housing department in the Gauteng region which surrounds Johannesburg said it had allocated nine houses to foreigners in Alexandra but argued in a report that those people had permanent resident permits.
The opposition Democratic Alliance said the government needed to clarify its housing policy and explain who qualified for state-owned houses.
Since most councillors are members of the African National Congress, it is the party that has been blamed.
The problems were acknowledged by ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe.
"Many people have taken occupation of more than one RDP house and sell their houses instead of living in them. We must put a stop to this practice and expose all who are corrupt," he wrote on the party's website.
A similar point was made by the leader of the ANC's ally, the South African Communist Party.
"Some of our own councillors illegally take bribes and allocate RDP houses to undeserving people who are South African and non-South African citizens," said Blade Nzimande, the SACP's general secretary.
"These corrupt practices create fertile ground for intra-community conflict and xenophobia," he said.
Taking action
The government has attempted to deal with this issue.
Recently the department of housing said that more than 7,000 civil servants have acquired RDP houses illegally.
The attacks have prompted widespread demonstrations
"We have 7,363 pending cases of fraudulently acquired RDP houses by government officials throughout the country," says Simphiwe Damane-Mkhosana, head of an anti-corruption unit in the housing department.
"We intend to prosecute all the individuals who benefited."
But the practice has become so widespread that rooting it out is proving difficult.
The resulting tensions have only served to exacerbate differences between South Africans and foreigners living in the so-called Rainbow Nation.
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