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Lesetja Mothiba said officers spread out across Soweto overnight on Thursday to quell rioting and looting. The shooting death of a young man, who was accused of robbing a shop owned by foreigners, sparked the violent backlash.
“In the hours of the night there were quite large-scale lootings,” he said, adding that some suspects were also charged with murder and attempted murder. “The whole of Soweto was affected.”
South African television aired images of people carrying refrigerators and other goods out of some of the many shops here run by immigrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries.
In a statement, President Jacob Zuma , who was in Davos, Switzerland, attending the World Economic Forum, said he had instructed his cabinet’s security officials to work with local authorities “to bring the situation under control and work toward restoring normalcy.”
Animosity between foreign merchants and South African citizens—where youth unemployment is higher than 50%—flares frequently. In 2008, riots and attacks against foreigners that began in Johannesburg spread across the country. Dozens of shop owners and migrants from impoverished neighboring nations like Malawi and Mozambique were killed.
The current spasm of violence began on Monday when a Soweto merchant shot dead a 17-year-old boy trying to rob his shop, police said. Dozens of stores have been looted in the days since. At least one police officer was caught on camera ransacking a shop in Soweto.
“We are going to take strong action against that particular member,” Mr. Mothiba said, adding that he had admonished his officers “that they must resist from being criminals themselves.”
Many South Africans have little faith in their police services, who are often slow to respond to incidents from traffic accidents to shootings. Still, Mr. Mothiba urged people not to take up arms on their own to protect themselves from criminals.
“We urge people to resist taking matters into their own hands,” Mr. Mothiba
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