2 Tanzanians killed in South Africa on Anti-Foreigners Attacks

Two Tanzanians living in South Africa have been killed in what has been linked with the ongoing xenophobic violence that rocked the country recently.

News of the deaths came as the minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Bernard Membe, announced from Oman that Tanzania had begun evacuating its nationals from Yemen that has been engulfed in a bloody war between government forces and rebels.

In South Africa, a representative of Tanzanians living in the country told The Citizen yesterday, that the two met their deaths in the anti-foreigners attacks that have left another five people from other countries dead and thousands displaced in the city of Durban.

Mr Bonka Kuseleka, a representative of the Tanzanians, named the deceased as Rashid Jumanne, a cigarette peddler who died on Tuesday in Stenga, a suburb in Durban and one Athumani alias China Mapepe, who died on Wednesday in the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.

According to Mr Kuseleka, Rashid was shot dead by unknown gunmen while peddling his merchandise while Athumani, a detainee at Westville correctional facility was stabbed to death by fellow inmates.

“As I speak to you now we are on a peaceful march with some locals in Durban to condemn these brutal killings but so far we have lost two Tanzanians here,” he told The Citizen by phone from Durban.