Publications
Partners
Two people have been arrested in connection with the killing of two people and the attempted murder of another as deadly violence erupted in Soweto on Wednesday, police confirmed.
Two of the victims were shot and killed, while another person is fighting for his life is hospital after surviving stab wounds.
Police officers have been deployed around Soweto to try and maintain peace after the residents of White City looted foreign-owned shops, claiming that these shops sold expired and conterfeit food items.
Provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that the police were investigating and that two arrests were made, but he could not provide further details.
“At this stage I cannot say their nationality because we are still processing them,” Dlamini said.
He condemned the acts of violence by the community.
“If they knew that those shops sold fake food, they were supposed to report it,” he said.
Foreign shop owners went to the Moroka police station for refuge as the looting took place.
The community seemed unshaken when the police arrived in two vans to one of the shops they were looting.
One of the deceased, Banele Qhayiso (23), was meant to graduate on September 19.
He was apparently shot in the chest by a shop owner who was trying to protect his property.
However, Qhayiso’s older sister, Noluthando, said he was not with the looters and had gone to the shop to buy something.
“He went out with my [other] brother to buy snuff and then after five minutes a boy came rushing in and he said the person laying on the ground looked like my brother.”
“I could not believe it was him. Even now I am still in disbelief,” she said.
Noluthando said her brother was already dead when she got to the scene.
Lehlohonolo Tsabane, a tenant at the Qhayiso home, was shattered by the news and could not hold back her tears.
“He was in college studying IT for three years. His graduation day was the only thing he talked about. He said he was going to take me with him because I am dignified and I was going to represent him well,” Tsabane said.
She said Qhayiso was like a child to her – they went to church together and they confided in each other.
“I could speak to him about my problems and he would always come to me whenever he had a problem. He used to babysit my two-year-old child. He loved God and he loved our kids like his own.”
The Qhayiso family depends on the grandfather’s grant money and the money that their aunt gets by doing piece jobs in town.
They all share the 74-year-old aunt’s house and they all had hopes that Qhayiso was going to graduate and have a proper job to feed the family.
“Everyone in the family had faith in him. Everyone’s hope was in his hands. The family had hopes that he was going to graduate and lift them up ... so now this is how it ends,” said Mpho Maade, a family friend.
