May 27 2009 at 09:19AM

Submit your comment
By Natasha Joseph

Two Somali men who ran a spaza shop in Darling have been killed in what community members describe as a xenophobic attack.

The men, Omar Josef and Hazim Amad, died in their shop in the early hours of Sunday when it caught fire - or when, the Somali community believes, a group of locals set it alight.

Police spokesperson November Filander said on Tuesday the cause of Sunday's fire was unknown and the men's deaths would be investigated.

Hussein Omar, the Western Cape chairman of the Somali Association of South Africa (Sasa), said the organisation had heard the news and had assigned someone to go to Darling to find out more about what had happened.

Omar said Sasa representatives had been told by members of Darling's Somali community that locals were responsible for the blaze that killed Josef and Amad.

"We've been told that some locals went to the shop in the morning and tried to intimidate (Josef and Amad). They were chased away, and came back in the early hours and burnt the shop down," Omar said.

"We think it was xenophobic."

Filander said no arrests had been made in connection with the fire, but that an inquest docket had been registered. He appealed to anyone with information about the fire to contact the investigating officer, Detective Constable Eldoret van der Merwe, on 022 492 2666.
• natasha.joseph@inl.co.za

o This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on May 27, 2009

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090527052...