Protestors loot stores, burn rubber tyres and block road junctions in the Johannesburg district. Photo courtesy of Moneyweb.
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police arrested dozens of people in South Africa’s commercial capital Johannesburg after rioters looted shops, burned tyres and blocked road junctions – the second outbreak of urban rioting in a week.
Police were unable to say what had triggered the violence, although unemployment at close to 30%, widespread poverty and income disparities have all been blamed for recent disturbances and attacks on immigrants.
Last week, hundreds of protesters in the administrative capital Pretoria set fire to buildings, looted mostly foreign-owned businesses and clashed with police, who fired rubber bullets at the crowds.
“We’ve stabilised the situation and arrested a few dozen people already,” Johannesburg police spokesman Wayne Minaar said.
“We can’t confirm the final figure right now but they will be charged for public violence … There’s also a charge of attempted murder being investigated.”
He could not confirm media reports that police had fired rubber bullets at the rioters, or say whether most of the businesses that had been attacked were foreign-owned.
At least 70 people have been arrested since hundreds of people marched through Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD) earlier on Monday, plundering shops and torching cars and buildings, the police said in a statement.
It then spread to two eastern suburbs and to the capital Pretoria, where local media reported shops burning in the Marabastad – a central business area largely populated by economic migrants.
Such violence breaks out sporadically in South Africa, where many nationals blame immigrants for high unemployment, particularly in manual labour.
South Africa is a major destination for economic migrants from the southern Africa region, with many moving from neighbouring Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in search for work.
Police Minister Bheki Cele insisted recent violence was linked to “criminality” rather than “xenophobia”.
In Nigerian capital, ABUJA, Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama reacted strongly to the scenes of violence.
“Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in #SouthAfrica by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection,” he said on Twitter.
In 2015, at least seven people were killed in a spasm of attacks on immigrants. — NNN-AGENCIES
