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Looted shops
The Mayor of the Inkosi Langalibalele District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, which includes the town of Estcourt, Mduduzi Myeza, says people must air their grievances against foreign nationals in a lawful manner, without intimidation or violence.
In April, rights group, Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia brought legal action against Myeza, who is from the IFP, for comments he made on his social media giving foreign nationals 21 days to leave the town.
In the subsequent interim order granted by the Pietermaritzburg High Court, he was ordered to delete all related Facebook posts within 48 hours, and to publish a written public retraction and apology within seven days.
In the same month, the High Court in Pietermaritzburg ordered Inkosi Langalibalele District Municipality officials to return shop keys to 38 Ethiopian shop owners who had applied for an urgent interdict to stop the municipality from preventing them from trading lawfully in Estcourt town.
The following day, at least 10 foreign-owned shops were ransacked and looted by local residents. The targeted businesses were exclusively foreign-owned retail shops located within the Estcourt Central Business District (CBD) and surrounding areas.
Affected shops included cellphone kiosks, bicycle stores, clothing stores and internet cafes.
Related Video | Foreign-owned shops looted in EstcourtÂ
