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| in Zambia yesterday |
Parts of Africa have turned on SA, with the country's
businesses being attacked and forced to shut doors while travel warnings were
issued to citizens.
SA businesses operating in Nigeria were forced to shut down
in retaliation for this week's attacks on foreign nationals.
Yesterday, the Botswana, Nigeria and Lesotho governments
issued travel warnings to their citizens planning to visit SA while Malawi said
it was monitoring the situation. Shoprite, MTN, DStv, and Pep stores bore the
brunt of the attacks, with Nigerians going on the rampage, looting goods and
vandalising the stores.
Shoprite Group confirmed in a media statement yesterday
that several stores in SA, Nigeria and Zambia "were unable to open due to
the protest action and extensive damage has been done to several supermarkets
over the past 24 hours, impacting the lives of millions of law-abiding
people".
A video circulated on Twitter yesterday apparently showed a
Pick n Pay store in Zambia being looted. South Africans took to the streets
this week in violent xenophobic protests that have since claimed several lives.
Foreign-owned shops were looted and torched in Gauteng while trucks were burnt
in KZN.
Shoprite said it strongly condemned any kind of violence
and intimidation against the citizens and businesses of countries on the
African continent and anywhere in the world.
MTN Group also confirmed that four of its outlets in
Nigeria were subjected to attacks and some stores in Johannesburg had to shut
down.
"MTN is working with the relevant authorities and
other stakeholders to focus on stabilising the situation both in Nigeria and
South Africa and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all those impacted by
the unfortunate violence. We are also looking at coordinating with key
stakeholders to work on medium-to-long-term interventions to this
situation."
Botswana yesterday issued an advisory to its citizens
travelling to SA. "The ministry of international affairs and cooperation
wishes to advise all Batswana travelling to South Africa to exercise extreme
caution in light of recent developments resulting in violent unrests in some
parts of the Republic of South Africa," it read.
In a video clip posted on Twitter yesterday, Zimbabwe's
deputy government spokesperson Energy Mutodi said there was no need for the
xenophobic violence as Zimbabwe in 1836 accommodated thousands of South
Africans, under the leadership of Mzilikazi, in Zimbabwe's Matebeleland after
fleeing from Shaka.
Mutodi said Zimbabwe housed South Africans fleeing the
apartheid government. "So, we actually delayed our land reform here to
ensure the apartheid regime don't continue with their system. So we have got so
many people working in South Africa and we want them to be safe and feel at
home because SA is our home."
Kenyan foreign minister Monica Juma said two Kenyans were
attacked and their property destroyed. She said that they were closely monitoring
the situation.
Several Nigerian reports claimed that its president
Muhammadu Buhari had recalled the country's ambassador to SA.
He also sent a special envoy to meet with President Cyril
Ramaphosa to get an update on what the country was doing to ensure the safety
of Nigerians.
Nigerian federal government spokesperson Ferdinand Nwonye
issued a travel advisory for residents in SA. "The government of Nigeria
wishes to advise Nigerians to avoid travelling to high risk and volatile areas
until the situation is brought under control."
Senator Shehu Sani, a Nigerian Pan Africanist, said on his
Twitter account: "If you turn the other cheek repeatedly you will end up
with a broken jaw and lose all your teeth." Students protesting in Zambia
stormed the SA embassy in Lusaka. Videos showed protestors burning the
embassy's signage. Sowetan
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