Violence over shop closing

Metro police retaliated to a community uproar after residents of the Pienaarspoort community in the east of Pretoria violently protested against the demolition of an illegally erected shop owned by a Somalian foreigner, said police said on Wednesday.

“There was an uproar as members of the community started to attack the police on Tuesday,” said police spokesperson, Captain Marissa van der Merwe. While yelling ‘we want to save our shop’, community members became aggressive and violent towards the police. “The police had to resort to using rubber bullets to calm the crowd,” she said.

Unrest and uproar quickly escalated among the 110 people, forcing the police to fire rubber bullets, which resulted in several injuries and two community members being transported to the hospital. “I cannot give exact figures as to how many were injured, but I can confirm that two people were transported to hospital,” Van der Merwe said.

According to media reports, a patrolling security official was shot in the eye by a stray rubber bullet. It is also alleged that a member of the community was shot in the leg by a live bullet. “The security official was taken to hospital and her eye is fine now,” said Van der Merwe, who also confirmed that only rubber bullets were used in the commotion.

Police destroyed the shop on Tuesday because it was illegally established in Pienaarspoort. “The shop had been illegally operating for the past two months. Police destroyed it after the owners did not adhere to orders to close the shop,” Van der Merwe said.