In-transit heists of SA Somalis

[Blythe]

5 November 2011

Somalis face terrifying xenophobic heists

Local criminals target Eastern Cape refugee commuters and deliverymen

By John Harvey


Somalis delivering food and other goods to their countrymen’s spaza shops in Eastern Cape townships are being shot at and robbed virtually every day as part of a new wave of xenophobic attacks on refugees.

And in addition to Somali claims that the shootings on delivery drivers are being carried out by six gangs under the control of local township businessmen, they say the situation has become so bad that these same people are now allegedly targeting Somalis simply traveling on minibus taxis.

“It is no longer a case of these people shooting us in our shops. Now they are trying to kill and steal from us on the move, because we are transporting goods or money we have made from our businesses,” said Abdirahman Nuur Jilley, a representative of the Somali Association of South Africa in Port Elizabeth.

“We have about 40 vans delivering to hundreds of shop owners in areas like Njoli, New Brighton and Kwanobuhle and everyday someone is being shot at. I have lost count of how many drivers I have met who have been injured in the past few months. We report this to the police, but they don’t do anything. I don’t see this ever ending.”

Somalis in East London confirmed that their drivers are also under siege from hijackers, “especially in the last few weeks.”

Somali Association of south Africa, East London spokesman Yunis Yussuf Ebrahim said only last week a driver was held up at gunpoint in Thembalethu Township, while Duncan Village had also been a “hot spot” in the past two to three weeks.

“This is happening every day now. I can’t even give you figures it is so much,” he said.

During May hundreds of Somalis were forced to flee from Motherwell in Port Elizabeth as local residents turned on them, looting and burning their stores.

Since then there has been sporadic, although no less savage attacks – some that have resulted in murder – on Somalis in their township stores, but now the foreigners are concerned that the gangs are completely cutting off their source of income with the in-transits heists. Jilley explained how the gunmen identified the driver early in the morning before they made their deliveries, then simply moved up to the delivery vans and shot at the window screen or through the driver’s side window.

“They don’t care if they shoot the driver in the head or whatever. Then they get away with the bakkie and all the goods that are in it. Later the bakkie is found and brought back to the mechanics in Korsten. Of course, by that stage it has been stripped of everything. There is nothing left.
The local people think we are here to take their jobs, but we are refugees, protected by the South African Constitution, who are only trying to make a living. We start our businesses ourselves. No one gives us our jobs.”

Abdi Risaak Omar, who worked as a journalist in Somalia before coming to South Africa in the mid 2000s, said he frequently saw gang members eyeing Somalis waiting to catch a taxi to Port Elizabeth’s inner-city to do their grocery shopping.

“They then catch the taxis and follow the Somalis around until they have done their shopping before they beat and rob them.”

Attacks like these on commuters were also claimed to be prevalent in King William’s Town, with local Somali community leader Aden Mori saying knives were the popular choice of weapon.

“This is definitely xenophobia. The locals and Ethiopians target us. Together we make up between 300 and 400 people. They never attack the other Xhosas,” Mori said.

In a tour of Durban Road in Korsten – from where many Port Elizabeth Somali wholesalers operate – undertaken by Weekend Post this week, the sheer scale of the apparent attacks could be seen in both the injuries to numerous victims interviewed, as well as hundreds of stripped vehicles that have been hijacked from the deliverymen.

Sitting quietly in one of the homes off Durban Road a man named Ahmed was still nursing the bullet wound he sustained while delivering goods in Kwazakhele on October 4. “It was about 2pm and three guys shot at me, hitting me in the arm. All I had on me was two cellphones and airtime (vouchers), and they shot me anyway. And this is not the first time I’ve been attacked this year, although then I was not shot, just beaten up,” Ahmed said.

He said because of his injuries he had been unable to work which was having a devastating effect on him and his family financially. “But there is no choice. We can’t go anywhere else, especially not back home (to Somalia).”

The makeshift garages dotted along Durban Road were most telling of the current attacks on Somali drivers, with the different lots littered with stripped vehicles.

Somali mechanic Hashi Burtinle Mohammed pointed out a white bakkie that had been found abandoned in the townships after its driver was shot in the leg three weeks ago. “This happened at Njoli. “They pulled him out of the van, shot him in the leg and drove away. As you can see, they stripped the entire car.”

Dali Mpengu, chairman of the Port Elizabeth Spaza Forum of SA, said it was the first time he had heard of in-transit attacks on the Nelson Mandela Bay Somalis. “Everyone is a victim of crime, it doesn’t matter who you are,” Mpengu said.

He said one of the problems local businessmen had was that after the Motherwell uprisings in May they had sought to meet Somali business owners, yet at the meeting only representatives of the owners had arrived, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly what problems there were. “The Somalis also don’t have good security like security gates,” said Mpengu.