Two unidentified foreign nationals were on Sunday stabbed in a renewed wave of xenophobic protests in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The President of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Adetola Olubajo, disclosed this in Johannesburg, South Africa.
But Olubajo said that the nationalities of the two victims could not be immediately ascertained as the police had yet to reveal the identities of the victims and the degree of the injuries they sustained during the attack.
According to the NUSA president, “It’s confirmed that two people were stabbed at a ‘taxi rank’ and Jeppe Road in Johannesburg Central Business District and we have informed the Consul-General of Nigeria in Johannesburg and the police in Jeppestown.
“I’m not sure (of their nationalities) as the police have taken them to hospital. Their identities were not disclosed. The police are using rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.”
Olubajo also said that the South African police minister was supposed to address a meeting on Sunday morning, but a popular South African activist, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who addressed the South Africans, called for peace. Some of the protesters, he added, however, got angry and left the venue of the meeting.
The NUSA president added, “Now, they are chanting ‘foreigners must go’ with some dangerous weapons in their hands. They have moved from Jeppestown to Blomfontein, even to the CBD Taxi Rank in town.
“Though we have been monitoring the incident for the past three hours now; police have not been able to disperse them. Our fear is that they may start looting again in the night.
“We have sent an alert to the Nigerians. Immediately, we used our various social media platforms to do that. We sent it to our structures and the entirety of Nigerians. Most Nigerians are aware of this by now because there are photos and videos, and it is also televised by SABC.”
He noted that though a lot of Nigerians were resident in the affected area, some of them had relocated because last Sunday’s looting and vandalism of Nigerian businesses by the South African protesters occurred in the same area.
Olubajo said, “Quite a number of our people live around Jeppestown and Fountain. We are talking about Johannesburg, which is very big but Jeppestown is close to the eastern part of Johannesburg.
“Jules Street is closer to them; it’s a major road they would take to the CBD. Taxi Rank is the major bus stop there. They have virtually captured that taxi rank and Blomfontein.”
