Wednesday, September 06, 2006
By Karen Breytenbach
Cape Times
In a move to root out the killing of Somali traders in the Western Cape, Provincial Police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros has said he will instruct station commanders to find out where they live and trade, and what their trading hours are.
At a meeting attended by Home Affairs, the media and refugee organisations, Petros urged nine Somali community leaders to tell their brethren who worked in poor informal settlements to ask station commanders in policing precincts for day and night safety tips and to stop police vehicles when they felt unsafe.
Referring to an incident this week, Petros asked the group to convince a Somali shopkeeper believed to have shot a suspected robber to hand himself over to the police.
Petros also urged NGOs and the Muslim community to help Somali asylum seekers to integrate into South African society.
Somalis needed to “speak with one voice” to avoid confusion in the media, he warned.
Petros used Harare in Khayelitsha as an example of an area where traders would be more vulnerable to violent robbery, as residents are very poor and there are no roads to patrol with vehicles.
Petros said he believed Somalis were victims of “classic robberies”, judging by the circumstances surrounding the nine recently recorded murders and 66 robberies of Somalis since January.
Source: Cape Times, Sept 6, 2006
