Police 'capable of handling attacks'

2010-07-20 17:27

Thembela Khamango

Johannesburg - Gauteng MEC for community safety, Khabisi Mosunkutu, on Tuesday said he was confident the police would handle attacks at the Kya Sands informal settlement, north of Johannesburg, insisting crime, and not xenophobia was the cause.
  
"We have assessed the situation thoroughly and the police are able to handle it well. There is no need for the army to be deployed," Mosunkutu said after he went through the squatter camp following Monday night's attacks, apparently directed at foreigners.
  
Earlier, residents demanded that the army be deployed to protect them, saying police were not doing enough.
  
Marcia Mocheka, a resident of the settlement, said they feared for their lives and did not think police were doing enough to protect them.
  
"These people are armed with axes and pangas and they can see the police patrolling. The minute they pass your shack, then the attackers come to kick your door," she said.

'Purely criminal'
  
Mosunkutu said the attacks were purely criminal activities, and were not xenophobia related.
  
"It's just a group of people carrying out criminal activities, they are failing because we have arrested most of them.
  
"We will not tolerate crime of any nature, all the perpetrators will be brought to book. Crime will be defeated," Mosunkutu said.
  
Honeydew police cluster commander Oswald Reddy said 11 violent incidents were reported. Five of the victims were South African, four Zimbabwean and two were from Mozambique.
  
Reddy said the crimes ranged from assault, house breaking and theft. A total of 10 people had been arrested by Tuesday afternoon and police were expecting to make more arrests at night, he said.
  
Earlier, five people - four of whom were foreign nationals - were taken to hospital after they were attacked in their shacks between Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
  
One of the victims, Simon Mnthise, 26, from Mozambique, whose spaza shop was looted on Monday night, said he heard people chanting - "We don't want foreigners here, they must all go back home".
  
"It was around 21:30, I closed the shop and ran to my friend's house in another section. While I was there my neighbours called to tell me that they had broken into the shop - looting, and destroying what they did not need."

Nothing left
  
Mnthise said when he came back on Tuesday morning only a bag of potatoes was left in the shop.
  
"I feel sad. I am left with nothing, I have no job, the spaza shop was my only source of income. I want to go back home because I'm fearing for my life but I have no money," he said.
   
Mnthise had been living in South Africa for the past two years.
   
Resident Isaac Mashiroane, 37, said he heard screams at about 22:00 on Monday night.
  
"It became quiet for about two hours and there was noise again around midnight. When we went outside to investigate we realised that people were being assaulted."
  
Mashiroane said the attackers were kicking doors open and demanding money and identity documents, as well as looting spaza shops.
  
"We don't know who they are because they covered their faces but they are targeting mostly foreigners because I also own a spaza shop but nobody came to my shop," he said.
  
He said his neighbour, a Zimbabwean, was among those taken to hospital.
  
Mashiroane said people did not like foreigners because they accused them of taking their jobs.

Extra police
  
Reddy said they would deploy 50 police officers at the informal settlement on Tuesday night and others would be on standby in case more violence occurred.
  
"We will have policemen in this area until calm in restored."
  
More than 15 police vehicles were parked outside the area with over 50 heavily armed officers patrolling.
  
Most of the residents of this area are unemployed, some sat around watching as police arrested people, whereas others carried on with their day-to-day chores.
  
Some were selling different traditional foods in the streets, with sewerage streaming down in almost all the streets.
  
SABC reported that a Somali national was shot and killed at his shop in the Kuyga informal settlement outside Port Elizabeth. Police said Ibraham Ali Hasson was alone in the shop at the time of the incident. He stumbled to his business partner's house where he collapsed and died.
  
No arrests had been made and police were investigating a murder.
  
Last week, violence apparently targeting foreign nationals broke out in the Western Cape forcing scores of Zimbabweans to flee.

- SAPA