‘Spoilt SA locals loot on any pretext’
● Somalis whose shops were plundered say locals are always looking for a reason to attack them.
Abdi Sala, whose shop was looted for the fourth time in seven years, said: “South Africans are spoilt. When the electricity goes off they loot, if they don’t have water they loot, [if they are unhappy about] no jobs then they rob the shops.
“Whenever they want to send a message to the government they always attack us. It’s very painful. We also feel the economic pressure but we don’t do crime.”
He said the mob arrived at his shop on Wednesday and took everything they saw. He ran away.
“They started with my neighbour, then came to me, swearing and saying we are selling expired stuff. The stories told on social media are not true. The community is being used … I am sure if I go speak to the community they will not know why they are angry,” he said.
Mahomad Abdi said his White City shop was looted at about 8pm on Wednesday.
“They took everything — my fridge, mattress, clothes, everything. Even one man who was in a wheelchair was taking part. He took cold drinks from my shop. It’s shameful.”
Abdi said that in the four years he has run the store, no environmental health practitioner has visited his shop. He pays monthly rent of R3,000.
A regular customer, Nobuhle Motsoeneng, said the store’s food had never made her family sick.
“I have always bought from these guys … and I don’t remember them selling me fake food.”