Four foreigners who are also owners of a spaza shop in Attteridgeville, Tshwane, have been arrested on a charge of attempted murder on Monday morning.
According to Police Spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, the four foreigners were arrested after a shooting incident in Attteridgeville whereby a 32-year-old man was injured following a shooting incident.
“Upon arrival at the scene the police were informed by members of the community that some Somalians who were inside a spaza shop had shot a member of the public in the right hand and right upper leg,” said Colonel Nevhuhulwi.
“The victim was taken to hospital and all four Somalians who were inside the spaza shop were arrested and are expected to appear in court soon on a charge of attempted murder,” she said.
The shooting incident happened on Monday when a group of local Attteridgeville residents went on a rampage protesting and carrying whips (sjamboks) to force various foreigners who own spaza shops in the township to shut down their businesses and leave the area with immediate effect.
One of the protestors, who refused to be named, told Tshwane Talks that the residents started their operation at around 6am on Monday whereby they went to one spaza shop after another to order the owners of those shops to shut down their illegal businesses.
“Members of the community went around the township warning foreigners to shut down their spaza shops, pack their belongings and leave the area,” said the anonymous protestor.
Residents also went to the Attteridgeville municipal offices where they stopped foreigners from registering their businesses.
The process of business registration by foreigners was also disrupted in Bronkhorstspruit.
Meanwhile, residents of Ga-Rankuwa, Mabopane and Soshanguve also went on a rampage to shut down foreign-owned spaza shops.
According to the anonymous protestor, foreign spaza shop owners were warned sternly that they must never open their spaza shops again.
The protestor told Tshwane Talks that the injured man got hit by two bullets coming from the gun of a foreign spaza shop owner who was trying to lock himself inside his spaza shop before firing live ammunition skywards and thereafter shooting the man twice when the protesting residents approached his shop at corner Hlakola and Chauke Streets at section Selborneside.
The shooting incident happened at around middays on Monday.
“As residents we won’t stop shutting down foreign-owned spaza shops because they are operating illegally and the owners themselves are also illegal in this country,” said the anonymous witness.
Several residents of Atteridgeville were by late on Monday afternoon seen patrolling the area and looking for foreign-owned spaza shops which had not shut down.
And on that very same late afternoon, several Pakistani spaza shop owners were seen shutting down their businesses, packing their stock and leaving the area.
According to several township residents in Tshwane, the initiative to shut down foreign-owned spaza shops was sparked by reports which said foodborne illnesses which killed several children countrywide originates from foreign-owned spaza shops.
Meanwhile, Inwooners Baagi Civic Movement (IBCM) leader David Ratladi announced that his organisation has called for a consumer boycott whereby residents won’t be allowed to buy goods from foreign-owned spaza shops.
“Those who are found buying from foreign-owned spaza shops will have their groceries confiscated by members of IBCM and destroyed,” warned Ratladi.
He appealed to members of the community not to loot anything from spaza shops, not to destroy property and also not to fight against owners of the spaza shops but enforce the shutdown peacefully.
Referring to the shooting incident during which one of his organisation’s members was injured, Ratladi called upon the police to raid every spaza shop in search of illegal guns.
“These foreigners are here illegally, yet they own high-calibre guns, and the police must do their job and arrest them,” he said.
Ratladi vowed that they as residents won’t be deterred from enforcing the shutdown by violence coming from owners of illegal spaza shops who in actual fact must be deported from the county with immediate effect as they are foreigners.