John Thumbi, a Kenyan entrepreneur caught up in the ongoing xenophobic violence in South Africa, has opened up about his ordeals in a country that is slowly tumbling into anarchy.
Speaking to NTV on Thursday, September 5, Thumbi stated that he had been running a clothes store on Jules Street in Johannesburg since 2006, but all that came to an end when irate, murderous youth on a looting spree ransacked his shop and razed it to the ground.
The visibly distraught trader narrated to reporters how he was robbed of his livelihood in a matter of moments on the evening of Wednesday, September 4.
“They have looted everything... This used to be my shop… It was around 8 o’clock last night when they came here and started looting,” he narrated in a video post.
He asserted that at the very moment he was stranded and the looting around him was yet to stop. In the video seen by Kenyans.co.ke, people can be seen chaotically running through stalls and other bigger establishments in the vicinity of the interview.
Thumbi expressed his regret over the failure by the South African Government stating that ever since the attack, no official from the government has been to where they were, 14 hours later.
“The government must come to see the mess that is here. If they want us to go home, then they must tell us to go. They must give us what we came to invest here because we have invested a lot here,” Mr. Thumbi remarked dejectedly.
The Kenyan Ambassador to South Africa confirmed that several other Kenyans have been attacked at Gauteng Province in South Africa, but no official count or identities have as of yet been provided.
The xenophobic attacks were triggered by perceptions from South African citizens that African emigrants taking opportunities away from the natives.
