Attacks on Foreign-Owned Shops Prompt 28 Arrests in South Africa

By Derek Alberts
Tuesday, April 14, 2015

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South African police said they arrested 28 people suspected of involvement in a deadly looting spree of foreign-owned stores in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

Attacks that claimed four lives in the port city of Durban on April 9 continued in the KwaMashu area on Sunday night, said Thulani Zwane, a police spokesman.

“Police vehicles that responded to the situation were also stoned by the attackers,” he said by phone on Monday. So far “28 people have been arrested for looting and burning down shops,” he said.

South Africa is struggling to contain an outbreak of violence that’s been directed against immigrants in a number of towns. At least five people have been killed and more than 200 arrested in Gauteng province, the country’s economic hub that includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.

A heavy presence of security personnel is helping stem the latest violence in KwaZulu-Natal, Zwane said. Local police, who earlier called for reinforcements and canceled some leave, were battling to distinguish between xenophobic attacks and those carried out by opportunistic criminals, he said.

Three camps have been established to house foreign nationals displaced by the violence, said Gugu Mbonambi, a city of Durban spokeswoman.

“The numbers fluctuate quite a bit, but we’re hoping for more clarity tomorrow” on how many people are being accommodated, she said by phone on Monday.

As Africa’s most industrialized nation, South Africa attracts thousands of foreigners every year, seeking refuge from poverty, economic crises, war and government persecution in their home countries. While the bulk of them are from elsewhere on the continent, such as Zimbabwe, Somalia and Ethiopia, many come from Pakistan and India.

The wave of attacks and looting was triggered after a Somali shop owner shot and killed a 14-year-old boy during an alleged robbery in Soweto in January. It’s the worst anti-immigrant violence since 2008, when about 60 people were killed and about 50,000 displaced from their homes.

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