Residents of Itireleng informal settlement, north of Pretoria, believe they are better off now that the foreigners are gone.
In February, Itireleng exploded with xenophobic violence - a sign of things to come.
Hundreds of Somalis, Mozambicans and Zimbabweans were attacked and chased out of the township.
And since then, according to local residents, crime levels have decreased.
When the Pretoria News team visited the informal settlement recently, locals said they could finally sleep with their doors open again.
Politicians say a "third force" is behind the recent surge in xenophobic attacks in other informal settlements, but Itireleng residents said they were responsible for their own actions.
They wanted foreigners out. But they admitted there were criminal elements who took advantage of the situation.
Willy Racheku, who is unemployed, said they had grown tired of living with foreigners in filthy conditions. They called a community meeting in February to address various problems, including crime.
"At that meeting we told foreigners they're not welcome in Itireleng anymore.
"The community took a decision and you can't say that all residents of Itireleng are criminals who incited violence because they reached a decision together." After the meeting, some foreigners left. Others refused, because they had nowhere to go. Local resident Michael Meso said: "It was then that we forcefully drove them out." Several foreigners were severely beaten. Homes and shops belonging to foreigners were looted and torched.
About 11 locals were arrested for public violence, but released on warning a week later. They were cheered by the crowd at the Atteridgeville magistrate's court.
It is estimated that more than 700 foreigners lived in Itireleng. Not one is left.
The residents have many grievances related to the foreigners.
Peter Morapedi, the head of the community policing sector forum, said: "We ran them (foreigners) out in two days. We told them we don't want them back. We never want to see them here.
"We blame the government for allowing so many illegal immigrants to cross into this country.
"The government should now have refugee camps for these people because we don't want them here anymore.
"Crime has never been so low in Itireleng. Cellphone and cable theft, house robberies and break-ins, rapes, gunshots at night and especially at the weekends are no more."
Foreigners, mostly Zimbabweans, first settled in Itireleng in 2000.
Morapedi said: "We allowed them to stay with us because of what was happening in Zimbabwe. But in 2004 there were so many foreigners we thought they were outnumbering us."
Residents said another reason that foreigners had to leave was that the government ignored their pleas for services.
Police spokesperson Captain Thomas Mufamadi said: "All I can say is that we have dealt with the xenophobic issue in Itireleng.
Residents said the government should have established refugee camps for all foreigners instead of allowing them to live with locals in informal settlements.
"Killing foreigners is bad and we never had loss of life in Itireleng, but it seems to us who live in these conditions that foreigners are more important to the government than its own people.
"That's why you see these attacks happening in informal settlements."
Residents are so determined to keep foreigners out of the area that they have established an office where foreigners, who were driven out of the area, have to report to before visiting their relatives, mostly South African wives and children, who were allowed to remain in their shacks.
Another said: "We sleep peacefully now. In the past we would have sleepless nights with gunshots in the middle of the night and especially at the weekends. Now the situation is normal."
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