SA will be normal in a week: Gordhan

Published Apr 20, 2015

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Johannesburg - Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Pravin Gordhan, on Monday promised foreign nationals in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, that things would return to normal within a week.

“This is a very difficult time for all of us. You can expect normality within a week or ten days, there’s a lot of hard work going on now to make South Africa safe,” he told Ethiopian shopkeepers who arrived at the Alexandra police station after hearing that Gordhan and Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau were in the area.

Gordhan and Tau were accompanied by religious leaders.

Earlier, they visited a nearby hostel to spread messages condemning xenophobia against foreign nationals.

One of the shopkeepers, who did not want to be named, told Tau and Gordhan that their shops were looted and that they were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

“Some went through the roof when they couldn’t enter through locked doors, and cleaned our shops out. We had to flee for our safety,” he said.

Tau assured the man that everything possible was being done to assist them.

A migrants advisory body within the City of Johannesburg was assisting the metro and would help integrate foreign nationals back into communities, Tau said.

Mozambican national Emmanuel Sithole was murdered in a street in Alexandra over the weekend. Three people have since been arrested.

Seven people had so far been killed in the violent attacks on foreign nationals and looting of shops which started over two weeks ago in Isipingo, outside of Durban and spread to other areas across the country.

ANA

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