Statement: R2K strongly condemn Soweto looting!
The Right2Know campaign is hugely concerned by the recent spike in looting of shops owned by, intimidation as well as threats of violence towards foreign nationals in White City, Soweto. Soweto residents went on a rampage and ransacked shops as well as violently intimidating shop owners. These are pure incidences of criminality bordering on being xenophobic. Two deaths were reported.
There has been growing, unverified reports on different social media platforms, about the production of fake goods being manufactured and sold by foreign nationals.
Though we are equally concerned by these reports, we condemn the actions of communities who take the law into their own hands and rather attack shop owners and loot their shops.
Equally so, there has been a consistent drive through social media and other mediums, where numerous xenophobia fuelled calls have been made to rid this country of “illegal foreigners” as a result of such unverified reports.
Such narrative intends to polarize societal opinion to rally behind a xenophobic call as a diversion to challenges faced by the poor and marginalized in our communities. We believe this is just simply a convenient pretext to project foreign nationals as responsible for the growing discontent and disillusionment that we witnessing in our communities regarding the socio-economic challenges in our country.
There is narrative that seeks to propose foreign nationals as the problem in this country which we view as an unfortunate attempt to divert attention from the real frustrations and genuine challenges faced by communities. We cannot allow a situation where foreign nationals are used as a proxy for political battles.
In an interview on Radio 702, a political party called African Basic Movement’s leader made xenophobic remarks calling for foreign nationals to leave the country before the end of the year. We believe such remarks have aided the deeply held xenophobic view of sections of our society and have in fact provided the pretext for the attacks on foreign nationals’ shops. We are of an opinion that such utterances propagate hate and are tantamount to hate speech in terms of the Equality Act.
- We call on the government to condemn these criminal acts and take decisive action to address the recent criminal actions
- Law enforcement agencies to respond decisively deal with all the acts of criminality associated with such actions and hold those responsible to account. This will help avert the potential for the current situation to spiralling out of control and potentially result in all out xenophobic attacks.
- We call on the government to put in place, strategies to mitigate the simmering tensions fuelled by certain political organizations that have been polarizing society with their xenophobic utterances
- We demand that a thorough investigation of individuals who are implicated in the generation of and disbursement of hateful massages in the media and other platforms, especially political leaders; and that these leaders be taken to task
Whilst we support the call made by the Health Department to investigate the allegations of “fake foods” manufactured and sold within our community, we call on all communities to exercise restraint and stop the looting and intimidation of foreign nationals and report criminal elements who may dilute genuine call for inspection of the goods sold in these shops.
We encourage communities to cooperate with the health inspectors that the department will be sending out to investigate and to be peaceful in the efforts to highlight the effect of counterfeit and illicit products making their way into communities and potentially prompting a health crisis.
We also call on the IEC to hold accountable, any political organization that perpetuate and foster such xenophobic sentiments given that, this could be another political ploy to divert attention from the critical issue, especially now that it’s electioneering period.
For media comments contact:
Thami Nkosi – R2K GP Campaigns Organiser: 062 624 5992
Alfred Tshabalala – R2K NWG Member: 082 683 7675
