The sight of a poor Zimbabwean refugee set ablaze by a jeering mob in a South African township has outraged public opinion and once again led to fierce criticism of President Thabo Mbeki’s moribund government.

The picture of the victim covered in flames made the front page of several newspapers and triggered a new round of soul-searching following a weekend of xenophobic violence from which the death toll has now hit at least 12.

This latest attack, on a resident of Reiger Park on the East Rand outside Johannesburg, has brought back memories of “necklacing” when the townships were ablaze in the 1980s during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle and “informers” and “traitors” had rubber tyres draped around their necks and set on fire.

The violence, which began last week, has focused attention on the ruling African National Congress’ (ANC) failure to make life much better for those at the bottom of the country’s economic pyramid. Unemployment in the townships is well over the national average of 25 percent and basic services are in short supply.

“People are having to find scapegoats, this is about competition for diminishing resource. Mbeki has tried to de-racialise the economy but only a very small number at the top have really benefited,” said Sipho Seephe, President of the South Africa Institute of Race Relations. Mr Seephe is a fierce critic of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies which he accuses of simply recycling "the same bunch of ANC cronies.”

Mr Mbeki’s government has overseen impressive economic growth rates which have created an emerging black middle class, but some 40 per cent of the population – 80 per cent of which is black – is little better off than at the end of apartheid in 1994.

“The school system is crumbling, the public health sector is in crisis and the HIV/AIDs epidemic is taking scarce resources and this feeds a perception that nothing is improving,” added Mr Seephe.

Mr Mbeki has ordered an inquiry into the violence, but his critics insist that what is needed is action.

“We have got inquiries coming out of our ears, but no leadership. What we need is leadership, we know the causes of all these problems,” said one political analyst.

Mr Mbeki, who is increasingly becoming a lame-duck leader after having lost the ANC presidency at the end of last year, is also blamed for an influx of some three million Zimbabweans into South Africa to escape economic melt-down in that country.

“Mbeki could have probably not done that much to stop this influx, but he could have used a language which better conveyed a sense of crisis,” said Mr Seephe.

Mr Mbeki’s government is blamed for failing to grant many of the Zimbabweans refugee status, leaving them few options but to work as illegal immigrants and in some cases opt for crime which has fuelled “anti-foreigner” sentiment also directed at Mozambicans, Somalis and Malawians.

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