After a teenager was shot
dead and his friend wounded in Snake Park by a Pakistani national for allegedly
stealing from his shop, an unrest has
erupted. Local residents are up in arms and it has spread throughout a number
of Soweto residential areas. Pakistan nationals' shops based in Snake Park,
Meadowlands, Zola, Mzimhlophe and Dobsonville are being looted. Merchandise is
being stolen, shops broken into and trashed. However, the owners are not being
harmed, just that the people are helping themselves to the shops' merchandise
without paying a dime while the shop owners look on from a distance in
disbelief.
I struggle to match the
actions of the community to the crime committed by the shop owner in shooting
at the teens. I am trying to come to a conclusion as to how the looting
compensates the killing of the teen. I have looked at a few angles to try
justify why the response to the shooting is what it is:
Anger
-The residents are so angry
with the shop owner that they have decided to drive him away from the community
by looting his shop. Fair, but how does
this then include all other Pakistani owned shops? Why not just drive him and
leave the goods alone?
Revenge
-The residents were so angry and wanted to avenge the shop owner's actions by taking away the only thing they view as equally important to him as a life of the teen was to them, so they took his stock. Again, how does this become about all Pakistani national's shops?
-The residents were so angry and wanted to avenge the shop owner's actions by taking away the only thing they view as equally important to him as a life of the teen was to them, so they took his stock. Again, how does this become about all Pakistani national's shops?
Criminal
- Or, ladies and gentlemen,
are the lootings a result of criminals waiting for opportunities to present
themselves so that they can proceed with their crimes of taking from those
trying to make an honest living? I was stunned to see a granny amidst the
looters taking part in the "grabbing" of the shop stocks. How was
what she was doing; helping herself to stuff that doesn't belong to her;
justifying her protest against the teen's shooting?
Written by QueenTroll
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| The aftermath |
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| Gogo dunising and helping herself |
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| A gathering nearby before the looting began |
Written by QueenTroll
