Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Langa residents have pleaded with the foreign owners of the shops they looted during protest action last week to re-open their shops.
The residents took to the streets of Langa last week in what was initially supposed to be a housing protest. The protests turned violent as protesters looted shops, stoned police and passing motorists, burnt tyres and destroyed electricity poles and street lights.
Most of the shops that were looted were owned by Somali and Ethiopian foreign nationals. The shop owners have since refused to re-open their businesses until their safety is guaranteed in the township.
The Cape Times reported that residents, the Langa Joint Committee and the South African Council of Churches in the Western Cape met with the shop owners on Sunday to apologise for the looting.
"Our people are going hungry without you. It is hard for families who depend on your shops to get their bread. Please accept our most heartfelt apology, we are doing all we can to ensure your safety," Joint Committee member Fuzile Gogo was reported as saying.
"I'll admit we did not do enough to ensure the protection of our brothers," Gogo said. He claimed that the protest had been hijacked by "a group of criminals" and that had led tot he looting.
Mustafar Haaji, chairperson of the Langa Somali Association, accepted the apology but insisted that the looting was xenophobic.
"There were South African businessmen who did not have their shops touched. It is because we are Somalis. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last," he said.
Source: iafrica