Metro cop injured as vehicle stoned amid stealing frenzy in northern areas

When northern areas shop owner Mike Bekele received a terrifying phone call from his brother — at the very moment looters were throwing stones and carrying off anything they could from his store — his blood ran cold.

Bekele, 43, who owns the mini-grocery store in Timothy Valley, said he had never imagined the community in which he had lived and worked for four years — often  providing for the needy — would one day turn on him.

On Tuesday, however, Bekele and his family watched as terrifying scenes played out in front of them.

A group of predominantly young people swarmed over his store, Hyper Value in Sweden Road, plundering what they could  before police arrived and dispersed the crowd.

However, before dispersing, the looters stoned a police vehicle and injured a woman metro police officer.

Metro police chief Yolanda Faro said the officer sustained an injury to the left side of her face when stones were lobbed at the vehicle.

She received treatment at St George’s Hospital.

Faro said other officers suffered bruises in the melee.  

A dejected Bekele said he had been home when his brother had phoned “screaming over the phone”.

“I was so shocked,” he said.

His shop had been operating for four years and he had never experienced anything like Tuesday’s mayhem.

Bekele’s shop was one of at least two stores that were looted in the area on Tuesday.

The other shop, Zhenwang Trading Centre, is in Mpuko Street.

By last night it  had emerged that at least one other store in the northern areas, in Durban Road, Korsten,  had been looted.

Earlier, Bekele said he had been in such shock that he had almost been unable to drive to his brother’s aid.

But he had called the police and then raced to the store.

“It was very scary. I am lucky my brother is safe,” he said.

“I am not worrying about what I lost [but] I am going to wait for a little before [opening again].”

Ward 38 councillor Eddie Harker said he had received a call from residents who live near the two stores when the looting began.

“They told me criminals were robbing the grocery stores and that some community members had joined them.

“In a video they sent to me, I saw people stripping the roof to get into one of the supermarkets [but they]  managed to close their doors before the looters gained access,” Harker said.

Bekele said he, too, had been told that the looters had been trying to access a number of stores in the area.

Harker, who received calls about the looting at about noon, immediately called the police.

“It is most unfortunate that most of our people here in this community are very poor and they do not have food.

“Everyone is at home due to the coronavirus —  this is something that is going to carry on for a while and people need to start coming to terms with that.

“But looting grocery stores, especially ones that benefited the community, is unacceptable,” he said, adding that the grocery store owner supported families in Timothy Valley and the surrounding communities.

Bekele said he would often help the residents with food parcels.

“I was donating food on the weekend. I went to help the poor people.

“You help people and then you get disappointed,” he said.

Faro said: “It is a sad day when an officer is injured and a vehicle damaged by the very people that they protect and serve.

“It must also be noted that there is now one officer and a vehicle less to patrol the area.

“An attack on any law enforcer is an attack on the state.

“It’s a loss not only to the department but also to the law-abiding citizens at large.”

Eastern Cape police spokesperson Sibongile Soci said residents had tried to loot spaza shops in different areas in the Bethelsdorp and Gelvandale policing precincts since 8am. 

She said members of public order policing units, the anti-gang unit, a private security company, police from Bethelsdorp and Gelvandale and the metro police had responded and teargas, stun grenades and rubber bullets were fired to disperse crowds.

“The situation is still tense in these areas. However [public order policing] and other reinforcements remain in the area to quell further looting.”

She confirmed that a metro police officer had been injured when the vehicle was stoned by the looters in Mpuko Street.

“These acts are purely criminal and are condemned in the strongest possible terms,” Soci said.

“Such acts that seek to undermine the government’s efforts to ensure that all people remain at home during the national lockdown will not be tolerated.

“Police and law enforcement agencies will not hesitate to arrest those who are found to have contravened the law.”

Khoi and San activist Christian Martin, a vocal advocate for residents of the northern areas,  said there was no excuse for the looting of the two grocery shops, which he described as criminal.

“It is heartbreaking and should be seen as a criminal act.

“Spaza shops and relevant essential outlets in our community are rendering a service to make it easy for us all,” Martin said, adding that police should ensure the perpetrators were arrested.

A number of northern areas residents weighed in on the issue on Facebook page Stop Northern Areas Shootings, condemning the incident.

One woman wrote: “Bunch of hooligans.

“Remember yesterday [Monday] those same Muslims gave out loaves [of bread] and food.” 

Another said that if the stores stayed closed, people would have to travel much further to buy their bread and milk.

On Tuesday night,  a man who only identified himself as Abdul and who was standing in front of a looted shop on Durban Road, Korsten,  expressed the fear that the looting  incidents were the start of something more sinister.

“We fear that this might be the start of a way to destroy us,” Abdul, who said he was  speaking on behalf of the Northern Areas Neigbhourhood Watch, said.

Large crates of coke, milk and sweets were stolen from  a looted store in the same street, Banu Quisim Trading, during an incident which left one man, MD Fabel, injured.

“The Gelvandale police station do not want to operate, the sector commands of other areas have given other neighbourhood watches the permission to operate during the Covid-19 [lockdown],” Abdul claimed.

“The SAPS members are understaffed in our areas and I do not see why they do not want to use us as extra resources.”

A visibly distraught Salam Araz,  who owns the looted shop, said that he was scared.

Araz led The Herald through his store, whose door was broken.

“They broke through the door of my storeroom and the stole some milk, crates of coke and biscuits.

“I am lucky that they did not steal anything more.

“I am scared that they will return and steal more,” he said.

It is unclear how Fabel who was rushed to hospital earlier with a minor facial injury, was  injured. ​