Johannesburg -
Helping the family of a teenager shot dead, allegedly by a Somali shopowner, is not compensation from government, Gauteng community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane said in Soweto on Tuesday.
“This is not compensation or admission of wrongdoing or guilt as some might think... this is stakeholders coming together to help a community member,” she told journalists outside the Snake Park home of Simphiwe Mahori, 14.
Nkosi-Malobane was visiting Mahori's family.
The boy's mother was not home as she had gone to a funeral parlour in Roodepoort.
She said the City of Johannesburg would help provide some of the food and cover some of the transport costs for the burial, to be held on Saturday.
“In our first interaction with the family, they told us about challenges they were coming across regarding preparations for the burial. We managed to secure help through the city,” she said.
The Somali Community Board, a shopowners' organisation, was also helping the family, she said.
Mahori, 14, was allegedly shot by Somali shopowner Alodixashi Sheik Yusuf in Snake Park, Soweto, last Monday.
He allegedly fired at a group of people trying to rob his shop.
Yusuf appeared in the Protea Magistrate's Court on Monday on charges of murder, attempted murder, and illegal possession of a firearm.
He is expected to be back in court next week to apply for bail.
Meanwhile national police have put the official death toll during looting of foreign-owned shops across Gauteng at five.
This is despite seven people being killed in violence involving foreign nationals.
“It is five,” Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale said.
He said two deaths were not related to looting of foreign-owned shops.
The list of those killed is:
1) Siphiwe Mahori, 14, was shot dead in Snake Park (confirmed by the police);
2) Nhlanhla Monareng, 19, was shot and killed in Naledi (confirmed by the police);
3) A 61-year-old bystander was shot and killed in Swaneville, on Gauteng's West Rand, when a foreign-owned shop was being stoned;
4) A baby was trampled by looters in Kagiso (confirmed by police);
5) and 6) Two suspected looters killed in Langlaagte (confirmed by police) and;
7) Malawian shopkeeper Dan Mokwena, 74, was attacked and killed as he slept.
Makgale said the Swaneville bystander was not added to the police's death toll as he was not involved in looting.
He was killed after a foreign national allegedly fired at a crowd stoning his shop on Thursday night.
He was in a tavern with a friend when they heard noises outside and went to investigate.
This was when he was shot.
Makgale said Mokwena's death was not linked to looting.
The Star reported that he was attacked and killed as he slept in his shop in Soweto in the early hours of Wednesday. - Sapa