Meanwhile, other foreign residents, upon hearing of the spate of attacks on foreign nationals in neighbouring areas, panicked and chose to voluntarily pack their belongings and flee for their lives.
Some foreign nationals living in Kalamazoo, Joe Slovo, Angelo, Kanana, Jerusalem and other informal settlements were forced to flee to their nearest police station when xenophobic attacks erupted on Wednesday, April 15.
On Thursday evening, April 16, police had to assist more than 25 foreign shop owners to move their stock from the Joe Slovo, Angelo, Kanana and Jerusalem informal settlements, to places of safety.
According to an Ethiopian national, Ibrahim Tilahum, who owns a supermarket together with other five of his countrymen, they were inside the shop on Thursday evening when a group of people arrived and began pelting their store with bricks and bottles.
They then called the police who responded swiftly to rescue the shop owners and save their stock.
Community members assisted the Ethopians to move their stock.
“We became extremely frightened when we saw the crowd, because we thought they were going to kill us and loot our shop,” Tilahum said.
He said he and the store’s co-owners have been in the country for the past five years, and have been running the supermarket in Joe Slovo for more than a year.
They pay R3 500 rent to a local owner of the property.
“The government is not doing enough to protect us against these attacks; many of our friends and countrymen have been killed here in South Africa,” Tilahum said.
“Criminals come to our shops to rob us of money, threaten us and steal our stock.
”We are not criminals – we respect the laws of the country and we work for ourselves.”
Tilahum also made an emotional plea for xenophobia to stop.
“We don’t know what to do now. We help South Africans, give them our goods on credit and sometimes we provide hungry children something to eat,” he added.
“This is how they thank us – with violence.”
In Kalamazoo, scores of Malawians were running helter-skelter towards the nearby bushes, on Thursday evening, to escape a mob attack.
According to Malawian Fanny James (52), he and his sons, along with other foreigners, fled their Kalamazoo homes and ran to the police station to seek refuge.
“We were all in our shacks at about 7pm when a group of men wielding machetes, sjamboks and sticks approached,” he said.
”Although some of those who fled managed to rescue some of their belongings, most of us fled without taking anything.”
James mentioned that some of his countrymen were brutally beaten before they managed to escape.
“The problem is that we don’t have money, because most of us are unemployed and survive on casual employment,” he explained.
”Right now I think is better to go back home rather than to die here in South Africa.”
James spent Thursday night at the Boksburg Police Station.
Foreign national Belaye Hailu, who owns a supermarket in the Angelo informal settlement section called ”Mission”, said he is very concerned that he may lose more than R150 000 worth of goods due to the xenophobic attacks.
“I have closed my business and I am considering taking all my stock somewhere else,” he said.
Some residents of the informal settlements have expressed their disapproval of the attacks on foreign-owned shops.
A resident of Angelo, Mishack Manqele, said: “Although I’m against violence, the very high number of foreigners in the country puts us under pressure economically to survive .
“They are taking away local jobs, because now most employers don’t want to employ South Africans, because they feel that we demand too much money.
“They also feel South Africans workers enjoy too many rights and are protected by the unions.
“We have to compete with the foreigners for scarce resources in the informal settlements and townships.
”They have taken all the job opportunities in the unskilled and semi-skilled sectors, such as domestic labour, security and the restaurant industry.”
Manqele’s feelings were echoed by another resident, Ibrahim Detshego, who suggested that foreigners should be placed in refugee camps.
He accused the government of not listening to the people, because the issue of foreigners was raised many times.
Spokesperson for the Boksburg SAPS, Lieut Kwendzakwakhe Ngobese, confirmed that about 1 000 panic-stricken foreigners left their shacks in Angelo on Wednesday evening and gathered on the side of Main Reef Road, because they were scared that South Africans would attack them while they were asleep in their shacks.
“They spent Wednesday night under the stars, as they were scared that locals might attack them,” said Ngobese.
“Others reportedly went back to their shacks in the early hours of Thursday, but slept on the roofs, as they were still scared that locals would come and burn their shacks.”
Ngobese said about 50 of the panic-stricken foreigners ran to the police station to seek protection against any attack by locals.
Police were on high alert last week and were closely monitoring all the xenophobic attack hot spots.
Reiger Park SAPS spokesperson Mashudu Phathela appealed to all residents of Boksburg to refrain from any acts of violence, adding that police would not tolerate a situation where people decide to take the law into their own hands.
* Vicious xenophobic attacks broke out in Ramaphosa in 2008, when score of people were killed and thousands were displaced.
This included the brutal murder of Ernesto Nhamuave, a 35-year-old Mozambican who was burned alive during the xenophobic violence.
Shop owners have, in the past couple of years, been intermittently threatened by locals, who were demanding that they immediately shut down their businesses and leave the area.
