Advocacy & Human Rights

A call for restraint and conscience amid the Spaza Shop looting crisis

By Collen MakumbirofaMakumbirofa Farms

Editor’s note: Reports and video circulating on social media allege that people in Mpumalanga died after eating food connected to a looted Tuckshop. Police have opened inquest dockets and confirmed deaths linked to food allegedly consumed during the unrest, but have not yet confirmed poisoning as the official cause — post-mortem and forensic findings are still pending. This article responds to the reports and the public reaction as they currently stand.

There is a video spreading on social media that South Africans in Mpumalanga died after they ate food they looted from the Tuckshop.

My response to people affected by Spaza Shops looting: don’t poison people, or any food, even if it is too beautiful looted.

I can’t imagine the suffering of someone dying from poison. Children dying from poison. This is pure cruelty, even if looting is wrong.

No food in the Tuckshop must be poisoned.

There are some injustices we can’t correct. Under such circumstances, if the pressure is too much where your Tuckshop is located and you can’t get any protection from the law — just leave.

We must not fight wickedness with wickedness, or by poisoning people.

A Message of Restraint

We don’t hate any South African. We just hate stealing, looting and killing people — which some, but few, are doing.

The majority of South Africans do not hate foreign nationals. Many foreign nationals are still in South Africa because many South Africans are good.

So there are some things we must not do. Let us continue to respect the laws of the country, even though we resist xenophobia and hatred.

This thing of poisoning people, I don’t want to hear it.

If your children get lost or misbehave, you don’t poison them.

We must not do things that affect the cause for peace. Even if we are in the midst of violence and unrest, no South African must be poisoned. In surrounding countries, no South African citizens must be attacked in retaliation. Retaliation is wrong and it kills wrong people. It attacks our comrades from South Africa.

Let us protect every foreign national within our borders, including South Africans.

No foreigner living among us must be persecuted.

Collen Makumbirofa

Makumbirofa Farms