Over 400 arrests have been made since last Sunday in several areas after ethnic violence broke out in Johannesburg and the South African capital Pretoria.

A wave of xenophobic rioting and violence between black South Africans and migrants from Nigeria and elsewhere was “a mere dress rehearsal” for the “civil war” awaiting the white community, a radical left-wing activist says.

At least 10 people died, including two foreigners, scores of shops were looted and burned and more than 400 arrested over days of ethnic violence that started last Sunday in several areas of Johannesburg and the South African capital Pretoria.

“One day we (will) turn it against whites. Just you watch,” Black First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama told The Citizen newspaper last week. “The current apocalyptic scenes of charred buildings and carcasses of motorcycles eaten by fire is a mere dress rehearsal of an eventuality awaiting white South Africa.

“The violence is currently black centred, but its source is in fact the structure of South African economic apartheid. This structure was created by white people under apartheid and continued by black political leaders who are bought by the same white money.”

Mngxitama said the “black-on-black war, incorrectly named xenophobia” came in cycles that were growing more frequent and “it’s just a matter of time before they transgress into the secured white zone and enact an anti-colonial civil war”.

“The white community is secured in its belief that the black political leaders whom it has bought to provide it with security has the black masses under control,” he said. “This is cold comfort. The coming black rage, when it implodes into the white community, shall not heed the sweet talk of the overfed politician clad in Louis Vuitton from toe to head.”

Mngxitama formed the unregistered party, whose main policy is the seizure white-owned land, in 2015 after being kicked out of the radical Marxist party the Economic Freedom Fighters, which he accused of “selling out” to the ruling African National Congress.

EFF leader Julius Malema was earlier accused of “racist incitement” by civil rights group AfriForum for similar comments, saying “our anger is directed at the wrong people”, urging “our African brothers and sisters” to turn the violence on “white monopoly capital”.

Malema, who leads the country’s third-largest parliamentary party, subsequently told a press conference white people were to blame for the latest attacks because they “prefer foreign nationals over South Africans”. “The owners of the means of production are white people,” he said.

The latest outbreak strained tensions between Africa’s two largest economies, sparked reprisal attacks against South African-owned businesses in other African countries and overshadowed a three-day pan-African economic conference in Cape Town.

Immigrants from Nigeria as well as Somalia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and South Asia flock to work in South Africa, but the country has seen sporadic waves of violence for the past decade as foreigners are accused of taking jobs away from locals amid rising poverty and joblessness.

Unemployment in South Africa is currently at 29 per cent, and more than 55 per cent among 15 to 24-year-olds.

No Nigerians were killed in the latest attacks, yet the diplomatic fallout with Nigeria was swift, as relations between the two countries are fragile. For years they have rivalled for recognition as the continent’s leading economy.

On Thursday, local newspapers falsely reported Nigerian deaths while carrying images of burning townships. Social media was also flooded with misleading videos falsely claiming to depict the latest attacks.

One video of a man being set on fire in the street and beaten by a crowd was widely shared by several accounts and viewed hundreds of thousands of times — but the footage, which appeared online in January, was actually of a mob killing two men who were accused of stealing a handbag from a woman.

Another widely shared clip purporting to show foreign shop owners jumping from the top of a burning building was actually of a fire at a design studio in Gujarat, India, earlier this year.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari expressed “dissatisfaction with the treatment inflicted on his fellow citizens” while Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said Nigeria had drawn “a red line in the sand” with the continent’s other superpower.

On Thursday, Jim Ovia, chairman of Nigeria’s Zenith Bank and a co-chair of the Cape Town World Economic Forum event, withdrew, citing the “hypersensitivity of the issues surrounding the lives and wellbeing of Nigerian citizens living in South Africa”, Reuters reported.

Nigeria, whose vice president had boycotted the summit on Wednesday, also recalled its high commissioner to South Africa. South Africa has in turn closed its diplomatic missions in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted on Thursday that a civilian airline had offered to evacuate any Nigerians in South Africa who wished to leave the country.

“Our country has been deeply traumatised by acts of violence and criminality,” South African president Cyril Ramaphosahe said in a televised address on Thursday. “There can be no excuse for attacks on homes and businesses of foreign nationals … (or) xenophobia.”

— with AFP