South Africa: Cameroon High Commissioner silent as Cameroonian-owned shops burnt in Johannesburg

By Ngala Hansel

The Cameroonian diplomatic mission to South Africa has not issued a statement after shops belonging to Cameroonian citizens were burnt in Johannesburg last night.

The acts of arson last night came three days after verbal threats to foreign African nationals from members of the Johannesburg-based Operation Dudula movement, a vigilante group that targets foreigners accused of being in South Africa illegally.

“Last week, they said they don’t want foreigners here and we said ‘no problem’ and closed the market and they came back and threatened to set the market alight,” South African news site Eyewitness News quoted one of the foreign shopkeepers as saying.

The growing anti-foreigner sentiment comes amid rising unemployment and inflation, leaving foreigners as easy targets of frustrated South Africans who complain of poor service delivery by the ANC-led government of the country.

On April 6, Elvis Nyathi, a Zimbabwean man was beaten to death and then burnt by members of the Dudula Movement in Diepsloot, a neighborhood in the north of Johannesburg.
The Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg has issued a statement calling on its citizens who lost two shops in the fire to remain calm, and respectful and to wait on South African authorities to conduct investigations that will establish the actual cause of the fire.