Mob sets fire to shops

Cape Town - A mob of angry Joe Slovo residents have set fire to several containers, mostly owned by foreigners, accusing them of using their businesses as a front to sell drugs.

Residents said their actions on Sunday were not a xenophobic attack, but an attempt to rid the community of drugs and to claim back land.

Joe Slovo Park, off Koeberg Road in Milnerton, is a small township made up of brick houses and shacks.

Residents blocked roads leading into the area with burning tyres and placed about 10 shipping containers in the area’s main road, then set fire to them.

SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) chairperson, Mncedisi Jibe, said residents did not understand why houses could not be built on land occupied by the foreign-owned shops.

Jibe claimed residents had proof that people operating their businesses from containers had been dealing in drugs and that this was the reason why they wanted them out.

“We are burning any containers in sight because they are on our land,” Jibe said.

He said the land on which those businesses operated belonged to the people of Joe Slovo and that they wanted it back. “We are burning them because when we put our shacks on here, law enforcement removes them,” he said.

Hairdressers, barbers and mechanics operating from the area were angered by Sunday’s attack.

Dolanti Kamana said that he had returned from church to find that his mother’s salon was among the containers which had been destroyed.

“The police were there but they didn’t do anything. They just watched. I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Kamana said.

“My mom is very upset and angry, but she is trying not to show it,” he added.

Kamana said he was preparing for an engineering exam and was not able to concentrate after his mother’s business container was torched.

“We weren’t there when it happened, but we think they threw something in the window and burnt the container like that. We didn’t have time to get some of the stuff like TVs and hairdryers out,” he said.

Joy McCarthy, a Joe Slovo councillor, said the community had not been protesting over a lack of services.

“This is not a service delivery protest, as we are trying very hard to deliver services and housing to the informal settlements,” McCarthy said.

“However, such unlawful behaviour and damaging of the existing infrastructure by certain individuals within the community is hampering service delivery.”

Late on Sunday, police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said streets in the area had not been re-opened because some containers were still in the road.

“We will monitor and patrol the area to maintain calm and order and we will reopen the roads once we are sure that motorists wont be in any danger,” Traut said.

- Cape Argus

Song of the Makwerekwere

Xenophobia rears its head as 'war' declared in Mayfair

Immigrants and refugees living in Mayfair in Johannesburg are living in fear after threatening, xenophobic letters began circulating in the area.

A group calling itself the South African Blacks Association (Saba) has made graphic threats of violence against foreigners in Mayfair and has encouraged others to do the same.

The organisation distributed pamphlets in the area – slipped into letter boxes and posted on lampposts – "declaring war" against refugees and warning foreigners that "we are coming for you".

"We will burn your houses, your so-called luxury cars, we will kill your fucken [sic] puppies [children] and burn down your shops," it said, before also threatening to rape and kill foreign women.

Mayfair is home to a number of immigrant groups from countries such as Somalia and Bangladesh. The fliers were dropped into letterboxes around the area the night before Eid celebrations two weeks ago.

Some foreigners living in Mayfair are terrified and have approached NGOs that work with refugees and migrants for support.

"We don't know who these people are [or] exactly when they are coming. Even if you say, 'let me try to have some people to guard us day and night', you never know when the attack will start," said Sulega Hussein, a Somalian who lives in Mayfair.

"We have nowhere to run," said Hussein, who lost a friend in the xenophobic riots of 2008, in which at least 62 people were killed.

"We're hoping God mustn't allow the same thing that happened in 2008 to happen."

Playing down the threat

But not all foreign residents in Mayfair feel this way. Amin Salat, national coordinator of the Somali Association, said he believes that because the Somali community in Mayfair is large and established, it is not in any imminent danger.

Salat said the association had tried to "minimise" the impact of the pamphlets and had chosen not to report the intimidation.

"We didn't approach anyone because we know that the people distributing those types of documents are small in number," he said. But this perspective was also informed by a fear that others would take on the cause of the pamphlet if they were aware of its existence.

"There is no need for us to take this case further. We don't want to bring the attention of others who are not aware of it," he said.

NGOs on edge

But Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, head of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, advised the community to report the matter to the police. Those who were responsible could be charged with incitement to violence, among other charges.

Ramjathan-Keogh said Lawyers for Human Rights is very concerned about xenophobia. "In 2008, more than 60 people were killed. In 2010/2011 more than 100 people were killed. It happened very quietly, there was no media scrutiny or public outcry."

"I would take any threat seriously," she added.

Alphonse Munyaneza, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, agreed that the threat is "serious and credible".

Munyaneza said that according to its information, the group calling itself Saba has been operating since last year.

"This a group of people in bakkies, dressed in black, they have military discipline, they are very scary. They don't use violence in the sense that they come and beat you up [but] they are so threatening that, by intimidation, you just close [shop]," he said.

The Refugee Agency encountered the group in Freedom Park last year following an outbreak of xenophobic violence in the area but it quickly went to ground when the police became involved.

Loren Landau, director of the African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits University, said that stronger leadership was needed from government to condemn such intimidation.

According to Landau, anti-foreigner sentiment was rife at the recent national social cohesion summit, and that instead of condemning it, many politicians had stood by silently.

The theme of the summit was "creating a caring and proud society".

Peace and stability 

This came shortly after the release of the ANC’s peace and stability policy document, which dedicated considerable space to issues such as managing immigrants, asylum seekers and economic migrants.

At one point the document says: "Non-South Africans should not be allowed to buy or run spaza shops or larger businesses without having to comply with certain legislated prescripts. By-laws need to be strengthened in this regard."

The party came under fire during the policy conference for the discussion points, which appeared to validate xenophobic sentiments.

Landau said he hoped government would use the incident in Mayfair to condemn hate speech and incitements of violence against foreigners.

"By ignoring it, you just let it fester," he said.

Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for the South African Human Rights Commission, said that reported abuses against immigrants, especially Pakistanis and Somalis, and the complaints that the Human Rights Commission receives, meant that government had to step in to ensure that "the rights of foreign residents are not violated with impunity".

"These violations are of grave concern as it appears to [be] becoming endemic and systemic," he said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in South Africa said that it was worried about the simmering xenophobic tensions in some parts of South Africa.

Gaone Dixon, a spokesperson for IOM South Africa, said the organisation believed communities could find effective ways rise above their socioeconomic problems by  "cooperating and dialoguing" with migrants.

"Migration is one of the defining features of our contemporary world, [yet] it remains one of the most misunderstood issues of our time," he said.

City of Johannesburg spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said the City’s human development department had been made aware of the threats and was taking them seriously.

"Discussions with various stakeholders that form the migration sector have started taking place," he said. "We are hopeful that our security agencies will soon expose the authors of this pamphlet and severely deal with them," he said.

State Security Agency spokesperson Brian Dube told the M&G that the agency was not at liberty to comment on whether certain groups were being investigated for inciting violence and xenophobia as this would "defeat the whole purpose of intelligence gathering".

"All we can say is that as part of the security services in the country, we are working tirelessly to support the police, in particular, to apprehend organised crime groupings and those working to create anarchy in our communities," he said.

- M&G

Residents threaten to loot Somali shops

RESIDENTS of Nompumelelo town ship yesterday threatened to loot and  vandalise a new spaza shop which they  claim is a contravention of an agreement reached two years ago.

Members of the Beacon Bay police  and law enforcement officers from  the Buffalo City Metro (BCM) were  called in to intervene.

Ward councillor Makhaya Bophi  said the owner of the new spaza shop  had contravened a 2010 agreement  signed between local residents, members of  the Somali community and BCM law  enforcement officials.

The agreement, he said, prohibited  further establishment of Somali- owned shops in the township. There  are were currently 11 legally owned Somali spaza shops.

However, Bophi said last week resident Vuyo Ndeyisile rented out his  corrugated church structure to a Somali an national who then turned it into  a spaza shop. This angered the community.

“We held a meeting this past Saturday and we agreed that this spaza  shop must stop operating, but our  request fell on deaf ears,” Bophi  said.   “To show that we are not xenophobic,  we had to call police to come and shut  down this spaza shop on the com munity’s behalf.

“This area cannot afford to have  any more Somali-owned shops because our own brothers and sisters  need a chance to open their businesses.” he said, adding that jobs were hard to find for local residents.

Ndeyisile, who had locked himself  up in the spaza shop, refused to open  when police ordered him to do so.

“The community cannot rule in my  yard,” he said to members of the  police.

Law enforcement officers then is sued Ndeyisile with a R1000 fine for  letting his property to an illegal business, which was operating without a  licence.

Mohamed Hasan, a Somali businessman in the area, said he sup ported the call for the spaza shop to  close.

“In order to avoid xenophobia, the  shop must close and stop operating.  That spaza shop is starting to make  trouble for us. We do not want to  upset the community,” he said.

Law enforcement warned Ndeyisile that should the business operate again, they would confiscate all goods.

Petros Majola of human rights  group Khula Community Development Project condemned the calls for  closure.

“We are quick to say that these  foreign-owned shops must close, but  are we going to provide these Somalis with food and clothing,” he  said. , adding that the country’s constitution catered for their rights.

“These people are not selling drugs, they are selling groceries and blankets to our people.”

Majola, who claims to know both  Ndeyisile and the owner of the business,  said his organisation would be  seeking legal advice (from DespatchOnline)

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

SA edges closer to xenophobic flare-up

South Africa could experience a recurrence of xenophobic violence similar to that of 2008, when foreigners were brutally assaulted and many killed.

With renewed attacks on refugees and asylum seekers in Western Cape and the Free State in the past few days, civil right groups have warned that the country is "dangerously close to boiling point" and in need of urgent action to prevent the "loss of innocent lives".

Though crime and xenophobia have been cited as motives for the displacement and assault of more than 600 foreigners, and the looting and petrol bombing of their shops, NGOs say the continuing attacks could be linked to the ANC's criticism of refugees and asylum-seekers.

South Africa came under fierce international criticism in 2008 when more than 62 people were killed and about 670 wounded in attacks that broke out in Johannesburg in May and then spread across the country, targeting immigrants whom locals blamed for taking their jobs.

Director of Passop - People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty - Braam Hanekom blamed the attacks on comments in the ANC's policy document, "Peace and Stability". in which the party calls for stringent laws against trading by foreigners.

"There is a claim in the document that 95% of asylum-seekers are not legitimate refugees. This is demonising refugees. The claim is being made before the asylum-seekers are judged by the Department of Home Affairs," Hanekom said.

He said that the ANC's discussion document, tabled during its policy conference in Midrand last month, was "problematic".

In Cape Town, where the ANC has proposed that asylum-seekers and migrants be barred from running spaza shops, and from renting houses from South Africans from which to run such shops - scores of foreigners have been attacked in the past two days.

In Mitchells Plain's Beacon Valley section, four shops in one street were attacked on Wednesday night. Masked men hurled petrol bombs at them just before 10pm.

In Valhalla Park, near Cape Town International Airport, more than 20 foreigner-owned shops had to close after some were petrol-bombed on Monday and looted on Tuesday.

A Somalian refugee Seisal Mohammed, 27, fought back tears yesterday when he told of how several men broke into his Beacon Valley shop and assaulted him.

"I escaped the violence in my country and thought South Africans would accept us and help us rebuild our lives, but it's just as bad here," said Mohammed.

He said he feared for his life and for his wife and two young children.

"We are always being attacked and assaulted. Our goods are taken from our shops and there is nothing we can do. People get arrested and then the police let them go. We have no one looking after us."

Gangsters, said Mohammed, are demanding a "protection" fee of up to R800 a day from the mostly Somali-owned shops.

Patricia Fredericks, 38, said gangsters in their early teens had tried to intimidate Somali and Bangladeshi spaza shopkeepers in Beacon Valley.

Before this week's incidents, most of the violence aimed at foreigners was in Cape Town's Khayelitsha and Philippi.

Valhalla Park ward councillor Nas Abrahams, of the DA, said that Tuesday's violence was a "free for all" in which Somali-owned spaza shops were looted.

He said the police could have done more to prevent the looting - they were photographed standing by while stolen goods were being carried away.

Police spokesman Andre Traut refused to speculate on whether the motive was political or criminal, or the result of hostility towards foreigners.

"We don't want to speculate about the motives. We'd rather investigate first," said Traut.

Hanekom, however, warned that the continuing attacks on foreigner-owned shops could soon spiral out of control.

"We are dangerously close to boiling point."

Hanekom's comments were made two days after 500 foreigners were displaced in Botshabelo, in the Free State, on Wednesday.

The SA Red Cross Society said the attacks started when street vendors were removed from Fairways, in Botshabelo, nine days ago.

Angry residents broke into the businesses of Somalis, Chinese and Ethiopians and stole goods and money.

Some houses belonging to foreigners were torched.

Colonel Sam Makhele said peace had been restored to the area but the police were monitoring the situation.

"The situation is still fine. There have not been any reports of violence."

But, said Hanekom: "The attacks have been continually happening; we have definitely been seeing an increase in their number."

Though some ANC discussion documents propose reducing the number of foreigner-owned spaza shops, the party's spokesman, Jackson Mthembu, said this had no relation to xenophobia.

"All our documents are on the ANC website; there isn't any that talks about spaza shops. When we talk about economic policy we don't even talk about spaza shops. What is [sic] spaza shops in the economic equation?" asked Mthembu.

The ANC policy will now be scrutinised by the party's national conference in December and, if approved, will form part of the government's programmes.

The ANC also wants a monitoring system to be established to ensure that the whereabouts of asylum-seekers are known.

- timeslive

Gang leaders behind attacks, say Somalis

New gang leaders trying to popularise themselves are behind the spate of attacks on foreign shopkeepers in Cape Town, according to the Western Cape branch of the Somali Association of SA.

The association said on Thursday that “Somali-phobia” was to blame for the latest attacks on foreign-owned shops in Valhalla Park and Beacon Valley in Mitchells Plain.

Chairman Abdikadir Mohamed said the association’s members in Valhalla Park have been told that new gang leaders who were trying to “stamp their authority” in the area were behind attacks on Somali-owned shops on Tuesday.

He said it was disappointing that police stood by while shops were being looted in Valhalla Park this week.

On Thursday, four more shops were petrol-bombed in Beacon Valley.

“The violence starts in one area and because Somalis and refugees have no one to stand up for them, the violence will start to spread. I don’t call it xenophobia. I call it Afrophobia, or even Somali-phobia, because it does not affect anyone who is not African,” Mohamed said.

He said most of the shop owners had fled to Bellville where they were staying with family and friends while they waited for the situation in the communities to change.

The Police Ministry was quick to quell any suggestions of xenophobia, saying it was looking at a multifaceted approach to tackle the problem, which involved working with civil society.

Zweli Mnisi, spokesman for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, said: “There are other challenges which the government is looking into because you have a situation of socio-economic challenges in the country… which we are not going to ignore, and one of them has to do with the regulation of trade between small and informal businesses.

“Some of the tension arises as a result of some competition, particularly at that level… in a normal situation shopkeepers or spaza shop owners will be in competition for prices, but because it happens with other nationals (foreigners), it becomes an issue. We are going to be ensuring that it is dealt with.”

Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said: “The SAPS will have to stop people from looting and threatening spaza shop owners before it spills over into other communities, which is what appears to be already happening.

“The police need to take control of this situation before it is out of their grasp, they need to make arrests, and these people need to appear in court to account for their actions.”

- Cape Argus