Published 17.28
Hundreds of people were arrested after looting during protests in South Africa demanding that all undocumented migrants leave the country.
Thousands of protesters – some armed with clubs – gathered across South Africa on Tuesday. This follows a weeks-long campaign by the National Guard with the cape directed at migrants allegedly taking jobs from South Africans.
The police announced on Wednesday that the protests had largely gone peacefully, but that around 900 people had been arrested, some of them for looting.
In Clermont, outside Durban, many shopkeepers’ shelves are gaping empty.
– We are not in the country illegally, but they just started looting. It was terrifying and I feel let down. We had 19 people employed here but today none of them have jobs, says 29-year-old Mohamed Abdul, originally from Somalia.
