Pretoria - Foreign nationals have accused police of failing to protect those whose premises in Pretoria West were torched at the weekend over accusations of dealing in drugs and prostitution.
Two houses were burned and various properties occupied by foreign nationals looted on Saturday morning. According to locals the properties were used for prostitution and as drug dens.
On Sunday, at a meeting convened by the African Diaspora Forum to discuss the attacks, the foreigners said they feared seeking refuge in at police stations because they did not trust the police.
“When police don’t do their job efficiently and fight crime, community members end up taking the law into the own hands,” said John Wani from the DRC. “Basically community members end up assuming the role of the police, but in a more violent way, obviously because they are fed up,” said Wani.
The core of the problem was not xenophobia, he said, but a social problem fuelled by a lack of action from the police.
“The first target is normally drugs. Yes, some foreign nationals are involved in the selling of drugs, but so do South Africans.”
However, police spokesperson Captain Augustinah Selepe denied the foreigners’ claims, saying despite the challenges police faced daily, they were working tirelessly to keep the crime rate down.
Selepe said no group of people received preferential treatment.
“We arrested some people involved in Saturday’s incident. If that is not a sign of effective policing, then I don’t know.”
Six people were arrested for the violence, a case of arson and public violence was opened and preliminary investigations were well under way, Selepe said.
Sunday’s urgent meeting followed violence on Saturday, where members of the community ran amok and burned down houses believed to be brothels and drug dens.
The residents claimed that foreigners recruited young local girls into prostitution and introduced them to drugs. They said many of the women in the houses were South African.
Smoke billowed from the two houses while police were kept busy by the perpetrators who ran from one home to the other, threatening to burn more to rid their community of drugs and prostitution.
A SAPS helicopter circled above Pretoria West while police vans frantically raced up and down, chasing the outraged crowds and struggling to maintain order.
The first to be torched was the Dolls House in Rosetta Street, which neighbours said landlord Anne Marie van Zyl was renting out to foreign nationals who ran a brothel and drug den.
The remains of one of the houses burned following claims of drug-dealing and prostitution. Picture: Jacques Naude
They said they had tried to engage the police on the goings-on at the house on several occasions, but failed.
Two young, half-naked women sat at the back of the burnt-down house. Condom packets, dresses and shoes littered the floor.
Van Zyl had been living there for four years. She said the tenants slept through the day and were extremely active at night. “I can’t say for sure they are prostitutes, but they have numerous people visiting them every night,” she said.
The 40-year-old lives with her boyfriend and 13-year-old day daughter in a separate house on the same property.
While firefighters focused on dousing the flames of her house, residents set fire to another house just a few houses away.
Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said they rushed to the scene and extinguished the fire fairly quickly, but residents continued to regroup as police vans moved into the different sections.
Members of various NGOs, political parties, and concerned members of the public, met at the Lawyers for Human Rights offices in Pretoria to discuss the attacks in Pretoria West. Picture: Jacques Naude
Some community members were adamant that they would continue burning houses and taverns that harboured criminals and prostitutes if the police did not take action.
Pretoria West Community Policing Forum (CPF) official Thesigan Pillay said while they understood the community’s frustration, but they did not condone violence or taking the law into their own hands.
“If you suspect any criminal activity, rather approach the relevant police and CPF to take the matter further,” Pillay urged.”
African Diaspora Forum chairperson Marc Gbaffou said immigrants had to close down businesses and flee when the attacks started.
“The situation is really tense; it’s a repetition of what has been happening in Rosettenville over the past two weekends.
“They say they’re fighting drugs and prostitution, but they’re attacking shops of foreign nationals in the process,” Gbaffou said.
The violence happened ahead of a march scheduled for Friday, where participants will be calling on the government to deport illegal Nigerians, Zimbabweans and Pakistanis. Gbaffou said he feared the attacks could be a build up to the march.
Facebook comments
Timothy Attacka: Burning houses will never stop crime and evil activities. I just see that act as act of wickedness, envy and jealousy. What action have them guy’s taken against rape and every night robbery?
Samuel Thantsha: Good
Franklin Fisher: Sex work is great. Must children report their mothers to police? Will schools or churches refuse money from sex workers?
Mubveleli Mukumela: Politicians are also part of drugs, hence they want to arrest people for fighting them.
Tshidi Mogomotsi: This too bad what’s happening in our beloved country
Mubadekanyi Augustine Liabara: No arrest for drug lords yet.
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