Attacks on foreigners averted

Foreign shop owners in Shaka’s Head hastily cleared their shops and fled the area last week in fear of xenophobic violence spreading north from Durban.

Rumours of attacks, looting and burning of foreign-owned shops in the area flooded social media and spread panic.

However reports of attacks were exaggerated, said Umhlali SAPS’s Lt Col Dieter Fittkau.

“There were never any actual attacks in Shaka’s Head, but people started talking among themselves and the foreign nationals decided to leave,” said Fittkau.

Last Wednesday morning, many foreign owned shops had been abandoned and closed, but there were no signs of violence or fire.

As a precautionary measure, Fittkau asked that KwaDukuza municipality suspend load shedding planned for Tuesday night, April 15 in ward 4 (Shaka’s Head) and ward 22 (Tinley Manor, Shakaskraal, Sheffield Beach, Salt Rock and Compensation) in the light of the threat of xenophobic attacks.

An offer from the Destiny Life Church to collect emergency aid at their Ballito campus resulted in a flood of donations from the public.

Destiny Life’s Carly Massimiani said that due to government red tape involved in housing refugees they could not house any refugees but remained a contact point for local foreigners who were in imminent danger in the event of further crisis. However they had been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Ballito community.

She said Ashton College had a ‘no shoes’ day on which all the pupils donated their school shoes to the cause.

The church is channeling the donations, supplies and equipment through the Red Cross Society, which is the primary feed of support into the official camps set up in the Durban area.