Roundup: S. African police vow to take strong action against looting

South African police vowed on Friday to take strong action against those people involved in widespread looting in the black township of Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg.

"We have strengthened police deployments throughout Soweto and other affected areas," police commissioner Lt-Gen Lesetja Mothiba said at a press briefing in Soweto.

"We are pleased to report that after the flare up yesterday afternoon, the situation was relatively calm overnight," he said.

However, residents said sporadic looting continued despite a heavy police presence in the area.

The latest spate of violence erupted after a 14-year-old boy was killed on Monday by a foreign shop owner, for allegedly trying to break into the shop.

His death sparked widespread attacks on foreign-owned shops. So far one foreigner was killed in the violence, while almost 100 foreign shops had been looted.

"When we briefed the media at midday yesterday, we had arrested 68 people and confiscated eight firearms. Since then, the total number of arrests has increased to 121," said Mothiba, adding that they were arrested for various crimes which include murder, attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearms and stolen property, public violence and fraud.

Meanwhile, police confiscated 11 firearms, 10 of them from foreign nationals, the official said .

President Jacob Zuma, now on a working visit to Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, has instructed the Security Cluster in Cabinet as well as the provincial and local government leadership to work together to bring the situation under control and work towards restoring normalcy, the Presidency said.

Locals should allow the police to get to the bottom of the matter, Zuma said in an exclusive interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

"Violence does not solve problems, problems are solved by interacting. Violence could cause more harm," Zuma noted.

Also on Friday, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said they could not rule out the possibility that the recent unrest in Soweto is related to xenophobia.

There was strong socio-economic evidence to suggest that this could be xenophobia at a local level, SAHRC's CEO Kayum Ahmed said.

In his interview with the SABC, Zuma said, "We are not xenophobic and we call on our people to calm down and let this matter to be resolved peacefully."

Zuma said the government understands the anger of the people of Soweto, but he advises people to "allow the law to take its cause. " Endi