The Gauteng Provincial Legislature was suspended this morning to allow its members to visit their respective constituencies to appeal for calm after sporadic lootings.
The carnage started last week in Pretoria after the fatal shooting of a taxi driver allegedly by a foreign national linked to drug dealing and early this week in the Joburg and Ekurhuleni central business districts. The mayhem spilled into Alex last night starting at about 9pm and through the night and resulted in the looting of goods, food and anything the looters would get their hands on. The extent of the damage still to be quantified is said to likely run into millions of rands.
Premier David Makhura accompanied by the MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko and Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela addressed the media at Freedom Square shopping centre, the sight of most of the damage. This, with residents looking on from a cordoned-off area. The tension was palpable signalling elusive calm while some abandoned looted items lay strewn on the streets together with burnt-out remains of waste taken from the shops. Other shop owners who were lucky to retrieve what was remaining in their shops, did so with police around.
Makhura called for calm among the residents and described the carnage as pure criminal acts. “The perpetrators should be found and prosecuted. Police are working around the clock to track down initiators and coordinators of the violence camouflaged as nationals going against foreign nationals.” He said, instead of sitting in the legislature they agreed to go out to communities to ensure calm and that the criminals involved are brought to book.
“More than 80 people were arrested in the Joburg CBD carnage and in Alex seven were arrested last night.”
One of them was arrested as he tried to steal from a shop just as Makhura’s entourage arrived.
Makhura described the acts as calculated by criminals who used bold cutters to gain entry into the shops. “After the break-in, the criminals then burnt the shops.”
He called on the residents to assist the police pending police reinforcement. “I will not hesitate to call on the president and the minister of police for the reinforcement if the situation worsens.” He said concern was mounting that the criminal element may be taking over in some areas for the purpose of looting. This, he said, should be stopped as also xenophobia was being fanned with foreign nationals being threatened to leave the country.
“We are a democratic society and can’t allow people to take the law into their own hands. There is no country without foreign nationals. We want to ensure that this is stopped. Every country has refugees, asylum seekers from war and conflict and as a self-respecting and civilised country we have ways of dealing with the crisis of refugees and asylum seekers.”
He said this in reference to illegal and undocumented migrants who may bring in undesirable things including counterfeit goods. “Our borders need to be strengthened to dis-enable entry to the criminals.”
Commissioner Mawela said calm had been restored in some parts of the province with Alex remaining. Some of thear rested were found in the shops and intelligence is determining the instigators. “The main instigator in Alex has been identified and the police are working around the clock to nab him. We want to know what is in it for the instigators.”
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