Pro and Anti Somali protests in SA

[OdaySomali]

Angry residents harass Somali traders

 

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INLSA

TAKING LAW INTO THEIR OWN HANDS: Residents from the Ramaphosa informal settlement in Boksburg vent their anger at a foreign shopowner by banging on the walls of his small shop. Picture: Antoine de Ras

 

 

 

Somali shopkeepers in the Ramaphosa informal settlement east of Joburg were forced to close their shops yesterday for fear of violence and looting. Police were called in to maintain order as ethnic tensions threatened to boil over.

A group of residents rose in the early hours of the morning, set up a loudhailer in a sedan and drove around the settlement, calling on others to confront the numerous Somali shopkeepers in the area.

 

 

But other residents defended the foreigners who were being told to leave by the mob.

 

 

The people with the loudhailer drew support from about 200 residents, who discussed how they would remove the Somalis from the settlement.

 

 

The group, rallied in the freezing cold by community leader Johannes Ramaropene, were told to approach the foreign-owned businesses, asking for the owner’s residency permit and tax clearance certificate.If these were not provided, they were told to “remove” the owners.

 

 

Ramaropene, a recently suspended member of the Reiger Park Business Forum, spoke angrily to an eager crowd about the alleged Somali threat to the community.

“Our money, our South African economy is affected,” shouted Ramaropene. “This is not Somalia.”

 

 

He accused police of accepting protection money from foreigners so that they could keep on operating their businesses “illegally”.

 

 

The business forum, which said earlier this year it wanted to solve the foreign shopkeeper issue without confrontation, was not present, except for one woman who claimed to be a member.

 

 

By 10am, two police vans with a few heavily armed officers approached the crowd and attempted to disperse them.

 

 

Officers were allegedly trying to arrest the leaders of the group, but the crowd told the police to arrest them as well.

 

 

As tensions rose between residents and the officers, the police decided to simply monitor the situation.

 

 

The crowd requested the police help them close the illegal shops, but they refused.

“The correct way is to lay a complaint at the (Reiger Park police) station, so that we can investigate properly,” said station commander Colonel Barry Mashaba.

 

 

Ignoring police attempts to stop them, about half of the crowd began to approach dozens of spaza shops on the main roads, shouting at the owners and telling them to leave. Persistent police patrols made sure the crowd did not become violent.

In a surprising move, residents living close to the shops also demonstrated their disapproval of the harassment by toyi-toying.

 

 

“This is totally unnecessary,” said resident Mavis Kunene. “These shops help the community. They open early and sell cheap (products).”

 

 

At HornAfric, a larger grocery store, owner Guracho Mohammed simply nodded when confronted by about a dozen protesters and told to get out of the area. He went back inside his building, looking perplexed. After he was harassed, he told The Star he was relieved the crowd had not become violent, despite numerous threats.

By 1pm, most of the crowd had dispersed, leaving shopkeepers torn between opening up their businesses or remaining shut. An hour later, they remained closed.

 

 

Constable Mashudu Phathela of the Reiger Park police station said that often the hidden aim of residents ganging together to incite the removal of foreign shopkeepers was to loot the premises. Phathela and Mashaba said an increased police presence would keep the peace throughout the night.

 

 

Some Ramaphosa residents have spent years attempting to clear the area of foreigners, culminating in the 2008 xenophobic attacks, which resulted in the violent deaths of dozens of non-South Africans. - SHAIN GERMANER

[OdaySomali]

South Africans in rare anti-xenophobia march - BBC NEWS

 

 

South Africa was hit by a wave of deadly xenophobic violence in 2008

Continue reading the main story

A rare protest has taken place in South Africa in defence of Somali and Pakistani businessmen threatened with xenophobic attacks.

A crowd marched through an informal settlement in Johannesburg chanting: "We want the Somalis to stay."

 

 

The march was intended to counter a protest by local businessmen demanding the closure of foreign-owned shops.

"I'll never allow foreigners to take bread from my mouth," a South African businessman told the BBC.

'Greedy and jealous'

 

He said that South Africans fought for democracy, and it would be a "criminal offence" to allow foreigners to dominate trade.

"I'm a businessman who wants to make a profit," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

 

 

But the anti-xenophobia campaigners, who were all mostly women, rallied to the defence of the Somali and Pakistani shop owners in the Ramaphosa informal settlement, which witnessed some of the worst violence during anti-foreigner riots in 2008.

Somali businessman

 

 

"They are the only shops from where we can buy things cheaply," one of the marchers said, adding that local businessmen were "greedy and jealous".

The BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Johannesburg says that as the rival groups demonstrated, the Somalis and Pakistanis locked their shops and stayed indoors while armed police patrolled the area.

 

 

"The police are giving us protection," a Somali businessman said.

"They told me to close my shop for own protection," he said.

 

 

At least 62 people died in attacks on foreigners that swept the country three years ago.