South Africa is in the grip of the worst violence since apartheid ended 14 years ago. Over 30,000 African migrants have been driven from their homes, and 56 have been killed, as mobs accuse foreigners of taking jobs and fuelling crime.

The violence has been widely decried as xenophobic. But scratch the surface of the media coverage, and a more complicated picture emerges.

In the South African press, the outbreak has provoked much introspection.

Writing in the country's Mail and Guardian newspaper, Christi van der Westhuizen says the bloodshed demands the whole nation take a long, hard look in the mirror.

"This is us. No miracle nation. No rainbow nation. Just us: violent; intolerant of difference - hitting where it hurts. Let's not try to sweet-talk ourselves. This is who we are. Let's look ourselves in the eye."

Condemning politicians who have written off the clashes as "merely" criminal, van der Westhuizen says that the current violence is symptomatic of problems across the whole of society. Brutality, racism, inequality and poverty are fundamental problems for all of South Africa, she says. Only by facing these problems head-on, can such outbursts be avoided in the future.

South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper meanwhile calls for political change.

"Throughout this crisis — arguably the most grave, dark and repulsive moment in the life of our young nation — Mbeki has demonstrated that he no longer has the heart to lead," the paper says in an editorial calling for President Thabo Mbeki to resign.

The paper criticises Mbeki for continuing with his commitments abroad while violence raged at home, and for not visiting those affected. Blaming his lack of leadership, the paper says: "Either he will not lead or he cannot lead. Whichever is the case, the conclusion is the same: he must go. The country cannot afford to drift for a year until the April election."

International commentators, meanwhile, look to global factors to explain the violence.

Along with Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Zambians, Malawian migrants have also been affected by the clashes. Writing in the Malawian newspaper Nyasa Times, Jessie Kabwila Kapasula, says she is reluctant to blame the violence in South Africa on xenophobia, instead saying the problem has global roots.

Poverty in South Africa has driven angry and frustrated people to look for scapegoats - and those scapegoats have been foreigners, Kapasula says. With people struggling for limited resources, and those resources dwindling, people are beginning to turn on each other, she says. This is primarily a problem of rising food and fuel prices - and that has global origins.

For an American blogger writing on the African Path blog site, it's the wider continent's troubles that are to blame for the present violence in South Africa.

"Foreigners have been beating a path across South Africa's borders for the last two decades - mostly illegally - as they run away form wars, failed states, economic collapse, and bad governments in their own nations and hope for at least a shot at some of the prospects available in the region's economic powerhouse," blogger Greg Houle says.

It is these problems across the wider continent, rather than domestic economic problems in South Africa, that are at the crux of the problem for Houle. And these nations are the key to solving the current crisis, he says: "Until these nations make it easier for their own citizens to survive the situation is likely only to get worse."

An editorial in Britain's Independent newspaper also says that misery in other African countries is to blame for the present crisis. This time however, Mbeki's role in perpetuating that suffering comes under fire.

"South Africa is now suffering the consequences of Mbeki's policy, as Zimbabwe's misery ripples outwards to encompass its neighbours and as millions of Zimbabweans flee their country in search of jobs and livelihoods," the editorial says.

The paper says that the huge influx of Zimbabwean migrants, estimated to be at least 3 million, have added significantly to competition for resources in South Africa, making it perhaps the most significant factor in the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, for those driven from their homes, reports say that cold and disease await them in make-shift camps across the country. For many of them, it's concerns about how the violence will be stemmed for good that will be at the forefront of their minds.

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