A free-for-all on Soweto streets
Soweto residents were up in arms on August 29 and started looting foreign-owned shops.
A wave of xenophobic attacks gripped Soweto as residents went on the rampage and ransacked spaza shops owned by foreign nationals this past week.
In scenes reminiscent of the attacks on foreign nationals in May 2008, a number of lives were lost and residents made off with goods from the shops.
On May 30, 2013, Abdi Nasir Mahmoud Good was stoned to death by a mob and on April 2015, there was a surge in xenophobic attacks throughout the country.
The graphic video of the brutal attack on Mozambican national, Emmanuel Sithole aired on national television and politicians condemned these attacks.
Soweto residents were up in arms on August 29 and started looting foreign owned shops. many raised their concerns and said that the shopkeepers sell expired food and called on the government and the health department to intervene by introducing quality checks on the goods sold at these spaza shops.
The Meadowlands community came to a standstill as residents looted shops and police tried to calm the situation to ensure that no one would be injured or killed and that shop owners leave the area unharmed.
Meadowlands police managed to rescue and notify many foreign-owned shop owners in time and some received assistance from the community as they packed their stock and left.
Most residents were saddened by this turn of events and said that the shop owners helped them out in times of need. The Soweto streets were left in a mess as some of the shops were razed to the ground.
According to colonel Lungile Dlamini, two people were killed-one in Mofolo and the other in White City, following the mass protests over what residents allege are the selling of counterfeit goods at by spaza owners.
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