JUSTICE MALALA: Looters are taking us down the path of Venezuela and Somalia
'South Africans who attack foreigners need to realise just how interconnected the world is. We are a heartbeat away from being a Venezuela, a Somalia or a Zimbabwe'
EXTRACT
As our compatriots ran amok, killing at least three people, news agency Reuters reported that Brazil was sending armed forces to keep order near its border with Venezuela. Another neighbor, Peru, declared a health emergency as a regional crisis sparked by thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse escalated.
The exodus of Venezuelans to other South American countries is building toward a “crisis moment” comparable with events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations said.
There are close to one million Venezuelans now living in Colombia and more than 400,000 in Peru. The Venezuelans are fleeing economic collapse. They are fleeing their own country to, as their president Nicolas Maduro has said, “clean toilets in other countries”.
Those residents of White City, Soweto, you saw running down the street with looted goods two weeks ago might want to stop and reflect on what their future may look like. They may not be aware of it, or have even contemplated it, but the path from where they are today (relatively safe and prosperous) to finding themselves in a situation where they are exactly like their Somali and Pakistani and Zimbabwean victims, is very short. As our compatriots ran amok, killing at least three people, news agency Reuters reported that Brazil was sending armed forces to keep order near its border with Venezuela. Another neighbor, Peru, declared a health emergency as a regional crisis sparked by thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse escalated. The exodus of Venezuelans to other South American countries is building toward a “crisis moment” comparable with events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations said. There are close to one million Venezuelans now living in Colo...
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