Businesses struck hard by xenophobia fears
An electric hardware store owner said, “I want to pack up my business and move out of the area. This is barbaric behaviour on the side of these criminals and I am saddened the SAPS is unable to handle it,” he said.
As the sun set over Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon, business owners along Jules Street were sick with worry.
They told the NEWS their stores were vandalised on both Thursday and Friday nights.
An electric hardware store owner said, “I want to pack up my business and move out of the area. This is barbaric behaviour on the side of these criminals and I am saddened the SAPS is unable to handle it,” he said.
Bedfordview resident, Mr Tim Haynes, shared the same sentiments.
“If the unrest is about not wanting foreign nationals as they claim they are, why then do they attack South Africans as well?
“These attackers are hiding behind xenophobia to commit crime,” said Mr Haynes, who employs a mixture of both South African citizens as well as foreign nationals.
A Congolese business owner said he was heartbroken to see how his fellow African brothers and sisters had lost respect for human life.
“This is not xenophobia, this is hatred and criminal behaviour. The men break the windows and doors to the shops and their women come in and loot whatever they can take away,” said the man.
Stock was stolen from a clothing store along Jules Street. The discovery was made by the owners, who are from Pakistan, on Saturday morning.
Foreign nationals sought refuge at both the Cleveland and Primrose police stations.
The Cleveland SAPS communications officer, Constable Mpho Mashakane, said police officers responded to a call on Thursday and found a group of people throwing stones at foreign nationals. A group of foreigners later flocked to the police station asking for protection.
“The group grew rapidly. At 10pm we had more than 200 people in the police hall. About 90 were women and children. Breast feeding mothers were there with their toddlers. Disoriented people, who did not know what would happen to their lives, were pacing up and down the hall,” said Const Mashakane.
Many shops in the east of Johannesburg were vandalised and looted on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and many have been closed since Friday morning.
