Madam, - For South African president Thabo Mbeki, the expression "chickens coming home to roost" has never been more appropriate.
The president's disastrous policies towards the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe are a principal cause of the recent horrific violence towards foreigners in South Africa's townships.
Mr Mbeki's and the ANC's policy of "quiet diplomacy" and their failure to condemn Mugabe's disastrous domestic policies have served to give some legitimacy to a regime that is responsible for destroying a once prosperous country.
The result is that many ordinary Zimbabweans see no future in a country where their president will go to any lengths to cling to power, and some 3 million refugees have flooded into South Africa in recent years. The sheer scale of this migration is such that most industrialised countries in the West (let alone a developing nation like South Africa) would struggle to cope.
The violence in South Africa's townships may finally persuade Mbeki and the ANC that the days of acting soft with the Mugabe regime are over. South Africa simply cannot cope with the numbers fleeing Zimbabwe and, with existing problems such as crime and unemployment, the country desperately needs strong leadership.
The eyes of the world will be on South Africa when it hosts the soccer World Cup in two years' time and the ANC leadership needs to show it it can make difficult decisions. - Yours, etc,
DENNIS STAUNTON, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.