DURBAN: Shop-owners of Indian origin in South Africa’s ‘Grey Street’ near Johannesburg have closed their stores as a precautionary measure in the wake of increased xenophobic attacks, which have claimed 22 lives so far in the country.
“We don’t want to be caught in these incidents and find our shops being looted or destroyed,” said an Indian origin businessman, who is not willing to be named because of the sensitivity in the area. Recently, two foreign nationals from Malawi were attacked in the ‘Grey Street’ area.
“There are plenty of foreigners from countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Congo and many of them are here in our streets. They do a lot of business with us,” the businessman said. Prior to 1994, the ‘Grey Street’ was known as ‘Little India’ because the entire place was completely dominated by Indian-origin people.
But after 1994, the demographic composition changed completely when Indian-origin people no longer entered the city to do their everyday shopping but preferred shopping centres in their own residential areas or malls dotting the city outskirts.
The shop-keepers, however, could not move because they owned the buildings. Their clientele now are mainly Africans. Police are patrolling the streets to maintain law and order. They are trying to contain criminal elements which are taking advantage of the situation to loot and attack shops and other places.
In the recent xenophobic incidents in Johannesburg, a mob raided a tavern owned by a Nigerian in the Dalton Road area while a group of youngsters attacked Mozambicans in the Cato Manor area.
