Letter sparks latest spate of xenophobic attacks
A LETTER instructing foreign spaza shop owners to suspend trading appears to have triggered the latest round of violent attacks on immigrant traders in various Gauteng townships this week.
Dated February 23, the letter by a branch of the South African National Civic Organisation, Sanco, referred to a community meeting held last Sunday at which it was resolved that they should cease trading by no later than Thursday.
Branch secretaries, Thembekile Maseko and Thabo Ngubane, signed the document “instructing” foreign traders to shut up shop until all community members arrested in connection with the January outbreak of attacks had been released.
In addition, Sanco referred to a “demarcation” process which was currently under way.
Yesterday Maseko explained that the community had sent letters to the Department of Home Affairs, the Gauteng department of economic development as well as the Department of International Relations in a bid to restrict the number of foreign traders in the area.
He said local traders were battling to compete against the high number of foreign-owned shops, which were able to sell their goods much cheaper. “We currently have three to four foreign shops on one street.”
Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane’s spokesman, Thapelo Moiloa, said the recent attacks were just “pure criminality” and maintained they had nothing to do with xenophobia.
Moiloa said Sanco’s instruction to the foreign traders was “worrying” as it may fuel tensions and work against the social cohesion that the government was attempting to create following the January attacks.
Just over 50 people have been arrested on charges of public violence following this week’s attacks in Soweto and Lenasia, south of Johannesburg. The attacks on foreign traders also spread to Brakpan, on the East Rand.
This follows a spate of xenophobic attacks in January during which about 1 000 foreign-owned shops were damaged and looted in Soweto and Kagiso.
Those attacks were triggered by the death of 14-year-old Siphiwe Mahori, who was shot during one of the attacks. A Somali businessman, Sheik Yusuf, was arrested in connection with the shooting. He is out on bail of R2 000.
Several other people died during those violent attacks, including onemonth-old baby Ngqobile Majozi, whose mother had been caught up in the looting spree.
On Friday Bangladeshi shop owner, Mohammed Ali, said he spotted a well-known South African spaza shop owner among those who attacked his shop on Thursday afternoon. “I asked them what was their problem, they couldn’t say. I still don’t understand why they attacked me,” he said.
Ali said he was lucky to be alive after his shop was petrol-bombed by five men who had demanded that he close his shop. Local residents, he said, confused by what sparked the confrontation, had helped him to extinguish the fire. Ali’s landlord, Wilfred Mtilwa, said this was the second attack on his store.
Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant Kay Makhubela said 34 people were arrested in Lenasia, 15 in Brakpan, nine in Dobsonville and seven in Protea Glen in Soweto. He said police were appealing to communities with information that could lead to arrests to come forward.
The investigation into the death of baby Ngqobile in January continues, while everyone arrested in connection with the January attacks was granted bail, including those still in custody who couldn’t afford bail.