Third force involvement ?

'I was paid to kill foreigners'

20 May 2008
Sibongile Mashaba

BATTLE GROUND: Ramaphosa informal settlement in Reiger Park,
Boksburg, was turned into a war zone yesterday when locals and
Mozambican nationals engaged in open gunfire. PHOTO: MOHAU MOFOKENG

IN PICTURES: See our photographers' coverage of this event

EYEWITNESS REPORT: Pictures and Sound

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Claims of third force surface

Police Probe possible Third Force link in violence as man claims he
and other attackers were paid to target
African immigrants !

A Soweto hostel resident has told police that he was paid to carry out
the attacks on foreign nationals in the township.

The man was arrested with six others who looted houses belonging to
those they believed were foreign nationals in White City, Jabavu, on
Sunday night.

This was the first indication that a third force could have a hand in
fanning hatred for foreigners and inflaming xenophobic attacks in
Gauteng.

Police were not revealing much about the man's claims, saying that he
was being questioned. They could not say who paid the man and how much
he received.

Police spokesman Captain Mpande Khoza confirmed that the man had made
the startling claims but was sketchy with the details, saying the man
was still being questioned.

"He had told the police that he was paid to carry the attacks. We do
not know at this stage who hired him. We are still questioning them."

Khoza said another seven men were arrested in White City Jabavu for
looting houses.

Police Crime Intelligence spokesman, Tumi Golding, said there were no
indications that the attacks were organised from a central point.

"We treat these attacks as criminal acts; our members are part of all
types of investigations," said Golding.

The violence which had claimed the lives of 22 people since last week,
had been spreading like wild fire in Gauteng townships.

The Soweto police, however, also issued a stern warning to against
anyone who dared to mount xenophobic attacks in the township. They
said they would do everything in their power to prevent large scale
black-on-black violence.

In the 1990s a third force element was responsible for black-on-black
attacks that claimed the lives of thousands of people in the
townships.

Councillor Zodwa Nxumalo said: "It hurts to see people losing their
belongings. We are not xenophobic in our country and I do not know
where these attackers come from. We urge the police to keep the man
who claims he was paid in jail until he tells them the truth and shows
them who his boss is."

Basani Sondlane, a Tsonga-speaking South African, whose RDP house was
looted, said she was alerted by her neighbours that Nancefield Hostel
dwellers were coming.

"The only thing I am left with is my identity document. My house has
been cleaned out. They took everything."