Monday, September 04, 2006
By Derrick Spies Safety and Security Reporter
IN WHAT has become one of South Africa‘s xenophobic hotspots, yet another Somali was targeted in Motherwell over the weekend, and this time the thieves demanded guns from him.
The incident comes at a time when the Somali community is up in arms about being the target of criminals, with the Somali Association of South Africa (Sasa) reporting that there have been 30 reported deaths of Somalis in the Eastern Cape since 1997.
Police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge said three men had robbed the Vuyani Cash Store, owned by Abdi Habrwa, in NgxoNgxosi street in NU3 Motherwell on Saturday afternoon around 5.30pm.
“The men demanded cash from Habrwa and took three cellphones, but what is disturbing is that they also demanded firearms, which he did not have,” he said.
Beetge said the police were concerned that criminal elements were beginning to consider Somalis easy targets to steal firearms from as a result of the media coverage they had received.
“Criminals read articles where Somalis say they are arming themselves with illegal firearms, so they believe they can take these weapons and use them for their own illegal activities, and the Somalis won‘t report it because the guns are illegal,” he said.
Beetge said it was a difficult situation, which needed to be addressed as soon as possible, and said a meeting between top police officials would be held at the Motherwell police station today to discuss possible solutions to the problem.
Sasa reported that nearly all recorded Somali deaths in the past decade had been homicides. Sasa director Ahmed Dawlo said the official number of Somalis killed in the country since 1997 stood at 85, but because of a lack of communication that figure could be as high as 300.
Dawlo said the Western Cape had the highest official number of deaths, at 38, followed by the Eastern Cape with 30, Gauteng 11, KwaZulu Natal one, Mpumalanga two, the Northern Cape two and Free State one.
Khayelitsha in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth‘s Njoli, New Brighton and Motherwell townships have been identified as the country‘s xenophobic hotspots.
In the Western Cape police have now conceded that attacks on Somalis were indeed motivated by xenophobia and not robbery, as was previously put forward. This follows the killing of 28 Somali shopkeepers in the Western Cape over the past two months.
“Before the more recent killings we used to think it‘s just criminal acts because we were doing business in the townships and they work until late at night. But in the past two months we noticed that this is organised crime. In some cases shopkeepers are just targeted with no cellphone or money being taken and that‘s what is so alarming,” said Dawlo.
Sasa was concerned about the police‘s lack of co-operation because in some cases dockets were simply closed within a week, without further investigation, he said. Out of the 85 reported deaths, five had been women, with the majority of deaths young men between the ages of 15 and 42.
Dawlo said Sasa had started to fill the void because of the instability of the Somali interim government, resulting in no diplomatic missions in SA.
“We act as an organisation which looks after the interests of Somalis. We also liaise with the departments of home affairs and foreign affairs.”
Additional reporting by Herald Correspondent
Source: The Herlad Online, Sept 4, 2006