Schwartzerwitz: Somali shop owners left to beg for food, clothing

Monday, July 16, 2012

Somali shop owners left to beg for food, clothing

After being forced out of their homes and businesses following a week of petrol bomb attacks,

several Somalis have been left stranded and say they have nowhere to go.

Mohamed Warsame Abdi, the chairman of the Mitchells Plain branch of the Somali Association of SA, said there were no NGOs or shelters willing to assist traders begging for shelter, food and clothing.

Abdi also spoke about their frustrations: “We all left Somalia because of the civil war. We just want a chance to make something with our lives. Most Somalis do not beg on the streets. They always work for people or for themselves. We just want all of this to stop.”

Several Somali-owned shops in Beacon Valley and Valhalla Park were burnt to the ground last week.

On Saturday, Somali trader Abdirahman Muhammed said he witnessed his shop, which he ran with three friends, go up in flames.

“The fire destroyed everything. It did not even leave us a single coin. All our clothes, money, food… everything was just gone.”

A petrol bomb was flung into the shop in Beacon Valley at 10pm on Wednesday.

“We tried throwing water on it, but then, while we were busy, another four petrol bombs were thrown in. One even hit the hand of my friend, Mohammed Abdullah, who also passed out from inhaling smoke. I had to carry him out of the shop.”

The pair have now been separated from their group as they travel to different areas to seek help from friends and relatives.

Muhammed said he and Abdullah had stayed in Bellville, Manenberg, Nyanga and other areas in Mitchells Plain.

“We will stay in Nyanga tonight (Saturday), but tomorrow we do not know where we are going to stay.”

He added that police have not given him any feedback on the investigation of the attack and he did not think that anything would be done about it.

However, police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said that the investigation was still under way.

Traut added that eight suspects were arrested in connection with the Valhalla Park incidents, but that the cases were withdrawn against seven.

Arrests are yet to be made in the Beacon Valley cases.

- Cape Argus

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Every Pogrom needs an Armband....

Welcome to Schwartzerwitz. The inevitable consequence of 4 million illegal immigrants arriving in South Africa. More desperate than our local folk they are willing to work longer harder faster for less. The immigrants are more reliable than South African unskilled labour and have outcompeted the local folk. No matter what anyone says it's not FAIR on our locals. Adding 4 million hungry mouths to the country has exacerbated the rocketing food prices felt across the globe. Adding 4 million potential electricity users to the mix has undoubtedly worsened the electricity situation. Having 4 million people send home money to their family drains the economy of money which should stay within the borders. Adding 4 million people and not registering them as taxpayers has cost the country billions. What chance does our government of ridding the country of shacks as per the Millennium Development Goal when 4 million immigrants build/rent shacks. Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe....? Just move to a shack in South Africa. On an individual basis this site condemns violent acts against individuals. However as a collective the illegal immigrants deserve no sympathy and should be deported back from whence they came. These people are economic refugees - "not real refugees" - and they are(generally speaking) in South Africa illegally.

kwerekwere.

The inside cover of my Oxford English dictionary features a word with which I have become all too familiar: the word is kwerekwere.

(It may be more familiar to you with one of its vernacular language–dependant prefixes prepended — the Sotho singular being le– and plural ma–, the Nguni singular being i– and plural ama–). This word is used to refer to black (in the morphological sense) Africans who are not South Africans — South African being defined as Sotho, Nguni, Venda and Tsonga ethnic groups (by that measure the Swazis, Batswana, etc. would be South African?). This word has a very negative sting to it and is often used with contempt. From what I gather it has undertones which speak of how black Africans are believed to be sub–human, too dark and have a pungent smell.