Skip to footer

Police arrest 153 in South Africa after xenophobic attack

Foreign-owned stores were on the receiving end of violent looting in the Johannesburg township of Soweto after a shopkeeper shot a 14-year-old boy trying to rob his store. A high unemployment rate has amplified deep-rooted xenophobic resentment in South Africa. 

|
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
A man looks on as he runs with items from a shop believed to be owned by a foreigner, in Soweto January 22, 2015. Local media reported that violence broke out on Monday after a 14-year-old South African was allegedly shot dead by a foreign shop owner.
  • By Lynsey Chutel Associated Press

| Johannesburg

Days of violence and looting of foreign-owned shops in South Africa have left at least two people dead and 153 arrested in the Johannesburg area, police said Friday.

The targeting of Soweto area shops owned by immigrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries recalled a wave of deadly violence against foreigners in South Africa in 2008. However, police sought to downplay allegations that xenophobia was the cause of this week's unrest, instead saying groups of young people, some in school uniform, were indiscriminately looting wherever they could.

"The youth who are addicted to drugs ... are taking advantage of this situation," provincial police commissioner Lesetja Mothiba said in a statement. "They are targeting specific items from the shops," including cash and cigarettes.

The violence started Monday when a foreign shopowner shot a 14-year-old boy in Soweto who was allegedly trying to rob his shop, according to the South African Press Association. Another man, believed to be a foreign national, was killed during the days of looting.

Police stood guard as Ethiopian, Somali, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals packed up the stock from their shops, and loaded it onto trucks that were escorted by police out of Soweto. Police reinforcements were sent to the township, though some video footage showed police standing by as looters emerged from pillaged buildings.

In one instance, a police officer was accused of participating in the looting. The officer, who was filmed, will be charged, according to the provincial head of community safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane.

President Jacob Zuma, who was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, instructed security officials to ensure that order is restored, Zuma's office said.

In 2008, South African mobs attacked immigrant-owned shops, triggering a wave of violence that killed 62 people. South Africa has a high unemployment rate and deep-rooted economic inequality, factors that fueled resentment toward foreigners perceived as taking opportunities away from South Africans.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Police arrest 153 in South Africa after xenophobic attack
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0123/Police-arrest-153-in-South-Africa-after-xenophobic-attack
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe