Two more people killed as looting spreads in S. Africa

Two more people have been killed as looting spread from Soweto to other black townships outside Johannesburg, authorities said on Monday.

The latest victims were believed to be suspects on a looting rampage in Langlaagte, south of Johannesburg on Sunday night, police said.

Their deaths brought to six the death toll in the fresh spate of violence that erupted last Monday in Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg following the death of a 14-year-old teenager, who was killed for allegedly trying to break into a foreign-owned shop.

As of Monday, looting of foreign-owned shops has spread from Soweto to other areas like Langlaagte and Alexandra north of Johannesburg.

In Alexandra, a shop was torched, prompting the deployment of police in the area.

The two suspected looters who were shot dead on Sunday night were allegedly part of a group that went to a Somalian-owned shop with an intention to loot it on Sunday night, police Lieutenant General Solomon Makgale said.

They were killed from bullets fired from the group, police suspected.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) associates the recent spate of violence with xenophobia. But the South African government attributes such violence to general crime, refusing to recognize it as xenophobic violence.

Deputy Minister in the Presidency Buti Manamela said the recent looting of shops mainly owned by foreign nationals in Soweto was not xenophobic, but a criminal activity by young people.

"Everybody says what happened in the past few days at this township (of Soweto) was xenophobic attacks, .. I do not think it was that.. it is what it is.. it is young people who decided to commit crime in their own communities," he said at the Rhema Church in Soweto on Sunday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has voiced concern over the unfolding drama which it says mainly affects foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers. Endi