6 held for looting shops in Daveyton

Johannesburg - Six people have been arrested for looting shops owned by foreigners in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni metro police said on Wednesday.

"Law enforcement officers arrested them and they will be appearing in the Daveyton Magistrate's Court within the next 48 hours," Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago said.

He said criminal elements had organised themselves into small groups of between six and 12 people and looted different shops from sunset on [Tuesday] until 21:00.

"Police could not get to all the shops at the same time, we could only get to some. So for those shops we could not get to, the residents themselves protected those shops [from] being looted," said Kgasago.

The arrests were made overnight, and no injuries were reported.

Kgasago was unable to say exactly how many shops had been looted.

"It calmed down overnight and this morning [Wednesday] it was fairly quiet," he said.

"Some of the rocks that were used to blockade roads yesterday have been removed. There is free passage to motorists to enter and exit Daveyton."

However, some intersections were still blocked.

Kgasago said a meeting between protesters and officials was scheduled for Wednesday to try to resolve matters.

Another meeting was planned for Thursday.

The protest began on Monday when residents tried to illegally invade land and erect shacks but were prevented from doing so by authorities.

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