The attacks on Nigerians and other foreigners in South Africa have continued.
The Nigerian community in South Africa said yesterday that another shop belonging to a Nigerian was looted in the latest xenophobic attack at Jeppestown,Johannesburg.
The South African Police said no fewer than 100 people ransacked shops in Johannesburg overnight, in the latest wave of looting incidents in South African cities.
“We are following up on leads and we are expecting to make more arrests,” police spokesman Brig. Mathapelo Peters said.
She said she did not know the nationalities of the shopkeepers and police were waiting for owners to come forward, so that they could open cases of violence and damage to property.
Similar incidents have taken place in Pretoria this month, but police have been reluctant to characterised the attacks as being directed against foreigners.
Anti-immigrant violence has flared sporadically in South Africa against a background of near-record unemployment, with foreigners being accused of criminal activity and taking jobs from locals.
President, Nigeria Union, South Africa, Mr Ikechukwu Anyene, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from Pretoria that the shop was looted on Sunday night.
“We have received information that there was an overnight attack on shops belonging to foreigners at Jeppestown, a business district in Johannesburg.
“A shop belonging to a Nigerian was affected.
“The goods in the shop were looted by the attackers. The Nigerian was not hurt during the attack.
“We also learnt that shops belonging to other foreigners were also looted,” he said.
Anyene said attempts made to loot another shop belonging to a Nigerian failed as the owner called the police.
He said the value of items lost in the affected shop had not been ascertained while the incident had been reported to the Nigerian Mission and the South African police.
“We have told Nigerians to adopt protective measures to save their businesses and homes.
“The union is in touch with the Nigerian Mission and our chapters in the nine provinces of South Africa are also on alert.
“They have been directed to sensitise our people on the situation in the country and to be cautious in all their endeavours,” he said
Also, a Reuters witness said doors and windows were smashed in, and food and other items were strewn on the floor in stores believed to belong to immigrants in Jeppestown, an area in the central business district.
“We’ve been stuck inside here until the police came,” Abdul Ebrahim, a Somali shop owner, said after emerging from his store, where a number of his colleagues had barricaded themselves.
“No one told us what they were looking for,” he added when asked why the mob had attacked his shop.
At least one person was arrested.
The Federal Government last week urged the South African government to put in place measures to end the incessant xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.
In a statement yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and The Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, slammed South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Mr. Malusi Gigaba’s statement in the aftermath of the xenophobic attacks, which has brought reprisal on MTN, a South African business conglomerate that “such issues were better discussed at the diplomatic levels” when more than 100 Nigerian lives have been lost in South Africa.
The statement said: “It appears that Mr. Gigaba would rather dwell on and entertain himself with diplomatic niceties when the welfare of Nigerians resident in South Africa are at stake now more than any time in recent history. His response to the xenophobic attacks, which has now become a recurring decimal on Africans, most especially Nigerians living peacefully in their host country of South Africa is indeed unfortunate.
“While it’s no longer news that law-abiding Nigerians in that country have borne the major brunt of these attacks, the news by the Home Affairs Minister that his country is trying to get rid of criminals in his country at the time when indiscriminate mayhem and looting of law-abiding Nigerians is very suspicious, to say the least. Even if this unguarded statement must be taken in its face value, we wonder if wanton destruction and indiscriminate killing of their African brothers is the most sensible excuse to give. The minister should have been more guarded and introspective in his statements so as not to further fan the embers of xenophobia that may get out of control if care is not taken.
“Xenophobia is such a debilitating social disease, based mostly on ignorance, in which its carrier also suffers. I therefore suggest that the home affairs minister should engage in the mass education of the South African people about the debilitating effects of this disease with immediate effect.
“The days that the Nigerian government will fold its arms while its citizens are maltreated to the point that some of them have lost their lives for no just cause are long gone.”
Labour to Fed Govt: recall Nigeria’s envoy
THE Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) yesterday asked the Federal Government to recall Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa in protest over the continued killing of Nigerians.
A statement by TUC President Bobboi Kaigama and General Secretary Musa-Lawal Ozigi, urged the government to “immediately begin a process of evacuating Nigerians resident” in that country following the silence of the South African government over the matter.
It said there was a grand conspiracy by the South African government and state security apparatus to mindlessly waste lives and take over properties of innocent and harmless fellow Africans.
The statement reads: “The TUC expresses serious concern over the ongoing xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa and calls for the immediate recall of the country’s high commissioner to the country.
“From all indications, it appears there is a grand conspiracy by the government cum state security apparatus to continue to mindlessly waste lives and take over properties of innocent and harmless fellow Africans.
“First and foremost, their anger is misplaced and probably borne out of the inferiority complex suffered from years of oppression and apartheid. As a credible organisation, we condemn crimes in all its forms and support punishment for those found culpable.
“But in this case, no one has mentioned any case of crime; it is rather a case of a country, whose freedom we staked our lives, financed and spent other resources to fight for and today we get xenophobia as returns.
“How do we refer to this anti-Nigeria, nay Africa attitude on Nigeria? One wonders what these South Africans are turning to. Is it a case of ingratitude or lack of historical documentation by their leaders, of the unmatched leadership role Nigeria played in the 80s towards the dismantling of apartheid?
“It is on record that thousands of South African children were brought to Nigeria and distributed across all the unity schools in Nigeria and were fed and housed free, courtesy of Nigerian government and Nigerians.”
