File photo.
PRETORIA, Aug 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, have arrested 17 people in connection with a violent, day-long protest that saw foreign-owned businesses being looted and torched, Johannesburg-based Times Live reports.
The street protests began on Wednesday, a day after a local taxi driver was killed by a suspected drug dealer.
South Africa has a history of xenophobic attacks by black people who accuse citizens of other African countries, as well as Asian countries, of criminal activity, stealing jobs and selling expired goods.
Police arrested more than 650 foreign nationals – including traders who had their goods seized – in Johannesburg earlier this month. A court ordered that 489 of them be deported within 30 days, because they were not legally in South Africa.
About four million immigrants live in South Africa according to official UN data, although some contest the accuracy of this figure.
The wave of xenophobic attacks that swept South Africa in 2008 claimed at least 62 lives. Subsequent incidents, particularly in 2015, have displaced thousands of African migrants and led to the large-scale looting of their shops and other businesses. — NNN-AGENCIES
