Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, says ten people have lost their lives in the recent xenophobic attack against Nigerians and foreigners in the country.
NAIJA LIVE TV reports that Ramaphosa made this comment in a televised address in Johannesburg, the South Africa capital on Thursday, September 4.
His words: “Over the past few days, our country has been deeply traumatized and troubled by acts of violence and criminality directed against foreign nationals and our own citizens.”
“People have lost their lives, families have been traumatized. We know that at least 10 people have been killed in the violence. Two of whom were foreign nationals.”
NAIJA LIVE TV reports that the South African Police have arrested over 80 people and confirmed five deaths as riots in Johannesburg and Pretoria intensified on Tuesday.
This online news medium understands that high unemployment and widespread poverty have been cited as possible triggers for the recent attacks on foreigners.
“We can’t rule out pure criminality of criminals using a sensitive situation where there are real grievances on issues of unemployment and foreign nationals,” police minister Bheki Cele said.
NAIJA LIVE TV reports that the police minister also confirmed five people had been killed in the three days of rioting, but did not give further details on the circumstances or on arrests.
Similarly, David Makhura, the Premier of Gauteng province, said during an inspection of the damage in Alexandra that there was a “xenophobic sentiment” underlying the attacks.
Ramaphosa condemned the violence, saying in a video posted on Twitter that “attacking businesses run by foreign nationals is totally unacceptable”.
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