Hungry lions loot foreigners' shops

Hungry lions loot foreign-owned shops

15 August 2019. By Blessing Mhlanga.

It has happened again and I’m not surprised. The hungry lions have preyed, only this time, through a lame excuse that they were avenging the foreign nationals who had attacked the police during a failed raid of counterfeit goods in Johannesburg CBD on 1 August 2019.

On 14 August, 2019, we saw the hungry lions, being the Soweto residents looting foreign owned shops in their townships claiming that they were selling counterfeit goods. The million-dollar question is that if the goods are counterfeit, why take them? And if they should be taken, should it be by the residents themselves?

I have discovered something out of this incident: poverty is not really lack of money but a pattern of stupidity of the mind and inner foolishness of unethical behaviors, which have clearly enslaved the looters of foreign nationals’ shops.

For a country that is over 20 years old in a democratic regime, this is a disgusting shame and pathetic scandal that would break Nelson Mandela into a river of tears.

Not only is this an overt xenophobic attack on foreign nationals but also a criminal offence which cannot be justified by a baseless claim of revenge. The residents have, out of ignorant chosen to fight the fire by more fire.

In a video taken by a resident by phone, residents can be seen looting goods from spaza shops but a strange but humorous thing I saw was a person who was literally dragging a fridge from a shop while others were obviously empting the shelves.

According to a TV news bulletin by SABC, residents actually dug holes on the exterior walls of the shops, looted the goods and even beat up some of the shop owners. Not only have the residents blemished the integrity of the rainbow nation as a whole but also have, probably, tarnished their long-term relationship with these foreign nationals, who from time to time, allowed residents to buy from them on credit.

How can you bite a hand that feeds you? Again, it takes us back to the above definition of poverty. Most people who looted these shops are, in my opinion, slaves of unemployment, substance abuse, poor education, theft, laziness and dishonesty quick fixes - a crippling chain that has made their thinking capacity dysfunctional. Most of them are single mothers with countless children from different fathers, unmannered youth living in filthy shacks who find pleasure in alcohol abuse and smoking nyaope, indecent fathers who are famous and well-talented at impregnating as many girls as they want because there’s government grant to buy pampers for those children, wicked grandmothers and grandfathers who praise their grandchildren for being gods of crime, using violence to get what they want while blaming the government for failing to building free RDP houses for them.

Instead of directing their anger to the relevant authorities, they turn it to foreigners, whom they accuse also of stealing their jobs, resources and opportunities. Fact of the matter is, residents are lazy bastards, who, out of their desperate hungers and cravings to make a living, find themselves choosing an easy way out, which is stealing from foreigners.

I also blame the Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba for fueling this ‘undocumented migrants trend’ in which he also accused the home affairs department for failing to deal with undocumented foreigners. This have given a wrong impression that foreigners in general are nothing but desperate criminals who are the reason why the average South African, especially those in township are failing to taste prosperity, success and development in all the affairs of their lives.

What if these foreign nationals decide to shut their shops for good and return to their country? Residents will have to travel long distances to a mall just to buy bread or cigarrete, which in this case would be much more expensive.

With their poor mentality, local residents can never manage to run a simple spaza shop, especially with their drinking habits and scandalous trends of sexual immorality in concern.

I don’t think Police are doing enough to solve the attacks on foreign nationals, probably because they slightly agree with others locals that foreigners should return to their home countries or be tortured for allegedly stealing locals’ opportunities.

My suggestion is simple: let the government compensate monthly allowance to foreign shop owners and give the shops over to the local residents for total control. Then we’ll see if they’ll not loot each other’s shops in the stupid excuse of counterfeit goods.

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NB: the above text is only but the writer’s opinion.