Somali-owned shops attacked and looted

Attacks and looting last week on Somali-owned shops in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province has left an estimated 150 people homeless and destitute, a spokeswoman for the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) told IRIN on Thursday.

Jenny Parsley said that the attacks took place on 10 September in the townships of Kwanobuhle and Langa just outside one of the provinces main cities, Port Elizabeth. “Twenty-five shops were destroyed in Kwanobuhle and nine in Langa,” she said. “The properties were severely damaged and in some cases completely destroyed. But no-one was injured. The local police were called in to intervene and we believe that a number of arrests have been made.”

Parsley added: “The sad and devastating thing for most of these people, who came to South Africa with very little and in some cases nothing, is that they have lost not only their businesses but their homes as well.”

She explained that most of the Somali shop owners lived behind their shops with their families. “The looting was not confined to the businesses, homes were also looted and severely damaged. We now have a situation where people have to basically start from scratch,” she said.

According to Parsley the attacks on the Somalis - many of them refugees - are reflections of xenophobia and xenophobic attitudes not only in the Port Elizabeth area, but South Africa in general. “Unfortunately, this problem is not confined to Port Elizabeth. Refugees have experienced hostility in other parts of South Africa as well,” she said.

Parsley told IRIN that social services catering for refugees are practically non-existent in the area and that following last Monday’s events the SAHRC human rights coordinator in Port Elizabeth attempted to find some kind of temporary accommodation for the group. “At the moment the men and women are being housed separately. The women and children are living in a house belonging to another Somali refugee and the men in a local hall belonging to the Muslim community.

However, the men will have to leave soon as the hall has been booked for weddings and other functions. People are really struggling,” she said.

Parsley added that the SAHRC had been “encouraged” by the supportiveness of the local councillors who have pledged to try and find alternative accommodation for the Somalis and to reunite families.

She said that local councillors have already embarked on a series of meetings to educate the community. “Local councillors have also told us that there needs to be greater integration between the refugee community and the local community. They said that there has to be greater interaction between the two groups,” Parsley noted.