Cape Town's reputation as a city of beauty and a haven of peace has taken another heavy blow with Tuesday's bomb attack on the Planet Hollywood restaurant on the Waterfront, a fashionable cornucopia of shops and restaurants only a few minutes drive from the presidential office at Tuynhuys.
The attack, for which an unidentified caller, speaking in the name of the small but fanatical Muslims Against Global Oppression claimed responsibility, has left the city stunned and the authorities vowing to hunt down the perpetrators.
The scenes of carnage - one person was killed in the blast, another died later and at least 25 were injured, some lost limbs - recall grim vistas from the not-so-distant past when guerrilla warfare by African National Congress guerrillas threatened to degenerate into urban terrorism.
Since South Africa's peace settlement saw the installation of a democratically elected government, Cape Town has reaffirmed its status as a premier tourist attraction.
But the grandeur of the mountains, the majesty of the surrounding oceans and the understated style of the best known suburbs - which have attracted international celebrities such as Earl Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, and Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher - hides grim realities. One is the Cape Flats, where most of the mixed race or coloured people live. Another is the townships, where the black underclass are located in shanties and small housing units.
The squalid Cape Flats area is characterised by gang warfare, often rooted in the drug trade; in the past two years vigilantism in the small Muslim community has surfaced as another distinguishing trait.
The most important vigilante organisation is People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, or PAGAD. Another Muslim-based organisation which has moved into the spotlight after Tuesday's bomb attack is Muslims Against Global Oppression: it labelled President Bill Clinton a killer during his visit to South Africa in March and accused the US of spilling "Muslim blood" in Somalia, Bosnia and Iraq. Reports that it has organisational links with the Muslim fundamentalist, Mr Osama bin Laden, are unproved. Muslims Against Global Oppression is alleged to have launched the attack on the Waterfront restaurant as a response to US rocket attacks on Mr Bin Laden's bases in Sudan and Afghanistan.
The poverty of the Cape Flats is superseded by that of black townships situated on the outskirts of Cape Town; viewed from the air they look like the camps of a proletarian army besieging a rich megalopolis.
Agencies add:
The South African Safety and Security Minister, Mr Sydney Mufamadi, said yesterday police had "firm leads" on the bombing of the Planet Hollywood restaurant in the Waterfront, and expected an early arrest. Meanwhile, security was stepped up last night at American food outlets. The FBI sent agents to investigate the atrocity and Planet Hollywood ordered extra security measures at its worldwide network of restaurants. Eighteen Muslim organisations condemned "in the strongest possible terms" claims that the bomb was the work of Muslims.
An unidentifed attacker hurled a petrol bomb against the entrance of the US Information Centre in Pristina yesterday evening, a security guard said.