Cape Somalis fear rise in attacks
2010-09-10 10:14
Cape Town - With the World Cup having come and gone with the added advantage of visible policing, vulnerable groups such as foreign traders in townships in the Western Cape feel they have been left at the mercy of criminals.
In August alone, at least eight Somali shopkeepers were murdered in the Western Cape and three have been killed since the beginning of September, says the Somali Retailers Association.
"One of our members was killed on Monday night in Delft by gangsters," Somali Retailers Association chairperson Abdi Aden told News24.
According to Aden, gunmen came into the Delft store where two Somali men were working and shot both of them.
"One died on the spot, the other survived," he said, adding that the gunmen then robbed the store of money and cartons of cigarettes.
Delft police confirmed the incident.
Rising crime
Police spokesperson Captain Joe Wilson told News24 a case of murder, attempted murder and robbery was being investigated.
"No suspects have been identified. We are appealing for information from members of the public," he said.
Aden said another Somali shop owner was shot dead in a Gugulethu street on Monday while one person was left dead and two injured after a shop owned by one of the association's members was set alight in Philippi.
He said although the circumstances surrounding the Gugulethu shooting were unclear, it seemed the Philippi incident was sparked by anger from local business people who had a quarrel with the shop owner.
Police confirmed both incidents and said they were investigating cases of murder, arson and attempted murder.
"We are seeing a rising level of crime against the (Somali retailers) community," Aden said.
No developments
He said the police had been working very hard during the World Cup and the period just after the tournament when threats and actual incidents of xenophobic violence were being carried out in the province.
"They were working very hard, they are relaxed now," he said.
Aden said in all the cases there had been no reports of developments in the investigations by the police.
"There is nobody in court. All of them," he said.
In September last year, then-chairperson of the Somali Community Board of South Africa Abdul Hakim Mohammed said in a radio interview that 90% of Somali deaths in South Africa were not from natural causes, but were the result of violent attacks.
According to Mohammed, about 200 Somali nationals had been killed in South Africa since 2002.
South African authorities have maintained that most of these incidents are not xenophobic in nature, but criminal.
No Utopia
"Theft and robbery are often the motivators for these crimes, and there are no grounds whatsoever which relate to the definition of xenophobia," Western Cape police spokesperson Andrè Traut told News24.
Traut acknowledged that "maximum numbers of police officers were deployed" during the Soccer World Cup in June and July because of the high numbers of visitors to the country.
"If we had lived in (a) Utopia, maintaining these numbers of deployed police officers would be possible, but because there are factors such as training programmes and vocational leave, we had to compromise, however without losing sight of our targets and service deliverables," he said.
He was quick to add that every member of society, "irrespective of his or her race or nationality", had access to policing services.
"This is applicable to our Somali community too," he said.
Although the majority of the 62 deaths that were the result of an unprecedented wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa in May 2008 occurred in Gauteng, most attacks against foreign nationals happen in the Western Cape, where many have settled in the province's townships.
According to media accounts, in August 2006 close to 30 murders of Somali nationals were reported in the Western Cape.
- Are you affected? Send us your story
