Back to work in the shop where a mob killed his brother

ALEX Marcus stood inside the charred shipping container and wept. The smell of burning human flesh, mixed with raw foodstuffs scorched by the fire, hung in the air.

It was the first time the container had been opened since April 10, when Alex and his brother Tessema were locked inside and it was set alight by an angry mob.

Tessema, 21, died from his burn wounds and was buried in his homeland of Ethiopia — four months after leaving that country in search of a better life in South Africa.

Alex, 24, bears the scars from that night — burn marks now tattoo his left arm and both legs. He has set up shop again in Umlazi, south of Durban, after returning last month.

The fresh paint on the green container is unlikely to obliterate the haunting memory of when he and his brother held on to one another, resigned to their inevitable death as the fire ate away at their flesh.

“After failing to break down the container they decided to set it alight,” Alex said. “All we could do while inside was to cling to each other. I thought it was all over for both of us until the property owner

BURNT ALIVE: Tessema Marcus [Point Sindane] managed to open the door with a crowbar and we were able to get out with flames all over our bodies.”

Alex spent three weeks in hospital and is still trying to pick up the pieces.

Said Sindane: “He spent 30 minutes inside the container crying and we had to get him out and calm him. But even now he is still scared, because when he returned someone called him ikwerekwere [a derogatory name for foreigners].”

Speaking from the refurbished and fully restocked container on Wednesday, Alex shared his anguish about not being able to bury his brother.

“When I was lying on the hospital bed I didn’t know that my brother had died.

“What is more painful is I didn’t get a chance to bid him farewell, let alone that I could not go back home to bury him,” said Alex.

He is so scared of further attacks that he has stopped selling soft drinks because his attackers had pretended they had come to buy a crate of drinks.

The gates to the property are now locked the entire day. Sales are conducted through a fence. “I am also closing earlier than before because I’m scared,” said Alex.

When he was granted a pass from hospital to attend his brother’s memorial service, xenophobic violence erupted again in the Durban city centre and he had to be taken

What is more painful is that I didn’t get a chance to bid him farewell