Archbishop Desmond Tutu has lashed out at political leaders who use “intemperate, inflammatory” language.

He warned that political figures were perpetuating hostility with their reckless rhetoric.

Nearly 29000 of the foreigners were still displaced across the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu- Natal in June.

Tutu made the comments yesterday at Johannesburg’s St John’s College, during a mass to mark the xenophobic violence that swept South Africa recently.

He linked irresponsible rhetoric with the violence that displaced 47000 foreign nationals in May.

“What has happened when it seems no longer to matter how you’ve behaved, whether you have integrity, that these [characteristics] are deemed irrelevant for public office?” Tutu asked.