Malawian killed in Soweto attacks:  His penis doused

A  74 year old Malawian  shop owner  has been attacked and killed in South Africa following attacks and they disembowelled him as he slept in his shop in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The murder comes as widespread looting of foreigners’ stores has broken out in Soweto.

The looting was sparked when a foreign national allegedly shot and killed a teenager while a group of boys attempted to rob his store in Snake Park on Monday.

Residents responded to the shooting by looting foreign-owned stores and blockading streets in the area.

Reports indicated that the assailants had hacked the door off the 74-year-old Malawian’s shop early on Wednesday morning, attacking him while he slept.

The Malawian, who was known as M’dala to residents, also had his penis doused in paraffin and set alight.

“He was a good man who lived alone. All he had was his small shop, where he sold paraffin, sweets and some biscuits and the small corn garden he’d planted,” resident Dan Mokwena told The Star newspaper of South Africa .

“He was blind in one eye and partially deaf. He was an old man. There was no need to kill him like that,” Mokwena said.

Reports indicate that Malawians and other foreigners are facing new wave of xenophobia as the locals are chasing them calling them “makwerekwere”.

Makwerekwere is slang for foreigner.

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation expressed concern at the spate of attacks on foreign business owners in Soweto. It said the attacks formed a pattern similar to the 2008 xenophobic violence and “condemn them as such.”

Sapa reports that nearly 70 people have been arrested on charges including murder, robbery, public violence, and illegal possession of firearms. Eight of them were foreign nationals allegedly found in possession of unlicensed firearms.