SAN FRANCISCO, February 24, (THEWILL) – The South African police on Friday said it has arrested 136 suspects in connection with their involvement in the xenophobia mayhem unleashed on immigrants in Pretoria.
The arrests followed a fresh wave of xenophobic attacks in Gauteng Province heightened by an anti-immigrants march held in Pretoria on Friday.
The march left a trail of destruction when marchers attacked makeshift shelters of a religious group camping outside the Tshwane Events Centre as numerous shops around the city centre were closed with customers still locked inside.
The Acting National Police Commissioner, Kgomotso Phahlane, said they had stepped in and fired rubber bullets to try and disperse protesters as well as the large number of foreign nationals who gathered together for safety insisting that the situation in Pretoria was now calm and under control.
“136 people have been arrested over 24 hours but we are unable to confirm how many of those arrested are South African and how many aren’t. We cannot allow situation to be overwhelmed by crowd. We use proportional force,” Phahlane said.
THEWILL recalls that a number of Nigerians were affected in the attacks which led to reprisal action by some protesters who attacked the Abuja office of Telecommunications giant, MTN, on Thursday.
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