Foreign-owned spaza shops looted

Cape Town - 120624 - The government is proposing that a number of foreign owned spaza shops be closed down. The government wants the shops to be owned by locals instead. Reporter: Clayton Barnes Photographer: David Ritchie

Cape Town - 120624 - The government is proposing that a number of foreign owned spaza shops be closed down. The government wants the shops to be owned by locals instead. Reporter: Clayton Barnes Photographer: David Ritchie

Published May 25, 2013

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KAREN CHEN

Dozens of spaza shop owners from Pakistan, Somalia and Ethiopia were attacked yesterday, their stock looted and doors ripped down. The targeted looting was widespread in Sebokeng, Orange Farm and Evaton areas south of Joburg.

Police said there were no known injuries.

The attacks began around 9pm on Thursday night in Orange Farm and Sebokeng, and at around 6pm in Evaton on Thursday. By yesterday morning, most of the shops had been emptied out, deserted with only spilt mielie-meal as a reminder of what used to fill the shelves.

Throngs of people stood outside their homes, some helping the owners who had returned to check out the damage and clear whatever remained, others waiting in fear for the next looting frenzy to begin.

Alim Dewan stood in the middle of the Orange Farm shop he worked in with his nephew. Looters appeared in their dozens and all that was left was one block of butter in the fridge, some toys hanging from the ceiling and a cat, slinking through the empty shelves.

On the floor nothing was left but a trail of mielie-meal and sugar, and some trash.

It looked like a storm had passed through and vacuumed everything out.

“Why (do) they come? I don’t know,” Dewan said. “But I must leave, there is no safety here.”

Rumours on the street alleged that a Sebokeng man was shot and murdered by a Pakistani on Wednesday, sparking the extensive attacks.

“Apparently – in quotation marks – the shooting is what started this,” a police officer said yesterday.

The Sebokeng police spokeswoman could not be reached for official comment at the time of going to press. The apparent renewal of xenophobic activity in several townships comes five years after a series of attacks that left 62 people, including 21 South Africans, dead.

The attacks, which started in early May 2008 in Alexandra, resulted in thousands leaving the country or being accommodated in transit camps.

On a dusty road in Sebokeng, the Saturday Star found the family of the man who was allegedly shot by a Pakistani on Wednesday.

He was recovering in Sebokeng Hospital. He said that he had been shot, but “felt fine” and was recovering well, but declined to comment on the incident or who shot him. He was identified by his aunt as Nkosana Tyantile.

“We don’t want them here, they are going to kill us and put us in a fridge,” a woman in the crowd yelled as a Pakistani shop-owner drove off in a truck with those goods he had left.

“This is not the first time this has happened,” Mohammed Mojlykobitlaj said, recalling a similar incident two months ago.

His store had been robbed of R2 000 and R3 000 in airtime.

But if xenophobia was on the woman in the crowd’s mind, many others spoke against her.

“No, Mohammed is a good man. When I am hungry, he gives me bread, even if I am short 20 or 30c,” Lerato Magida said. “Where are we going to get our food now? Pick n Pay is very expensive.”

She accused the looters of preferring to steal instead of finding work: “It’s all because of poverty. And now we all can’t afford food.”

Magida and other neighbours waved as Mojlykobitlaj rode off on the back of a bakkie. He waved back, not smiling.

Sautrday Star

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