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Johannesburg – National police yesterday put the official death toll during looting of foreign-owned shops across Gauteng at five.
This is despite seven people being killed in violence involving foreign nationals.“It is five,” police spokesperson Solomon Makgale said.

He said two deaths were not related to looting of foreign-owned shops.

The list of those killed is:

•  Siphiwe Mahori, 14, was shot dead in Snake Park (confirmed by the police);

•  Nhlanhla Monareng, 19, was shot and killed in Naledi (confirmed by the police);

•  A 61-year-old bystander was shot and killed in Swaneville, on Gauteng’s West Rand, when a foreign-owned shop was being stoned;

• A baby was trampled by looters in Kagiso (confirmed by police);

• Two suspected looters killed in Langlaagte (confirmed by police) and;

•  Malawian shopkeeper Dan Mokwena, 74, was attacked and killed as he slept.

Makgale said the Swaneville bystander was not added to the police’s death toll as he was not involved in looting.

He was killed after a foreign national allegedly fired at a crowd stoning his shop on Thursday night. He was in a tavern with a friend when they heard noises outside and went to investigate.

This was when he was shot.

Makgale said Mokwena’s death was not linked to looting.

The Star reported that he was attacked and killed as he slept in his shop in Soweto in the early hours of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, foreign shop owners and those who took part in, or witnessed, the looting of those shops last week described how police actively stole goods and helped others raid the shops during the worst attacks on foreigners South Africa has seen in seven years, City Press reports.

An estimated 120 foreign-owned or foreign-run shops were looted in Soweto and nearby Kagiso last week. Foreigners have described how some police officers told them to “go back to where you come from”, demanded bribes to do their jobs and helped themselves to goods on the shelves, including airtime and cooldrinks.

Widespread reports of criminal and xenophobic behaviour by some police officers tasked with stopping the looting in Soweto fly in the face of statements made by Gauteng police commissioner Joel Mothiba and Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane that what took place in Soweto during the course of last week was “criminal and not xenophobic”.  – Sapa