Pretoria, the capital of South Africa was yesterday thrown into chaos when taxi drivers took to the streets to protest the murder of a fellow driver.
The deceased was reportedly shot by some drug dealers who were identified as Nigerians.
According to News 24 the taxi driver found people believed to be police officers allegedly selling drugs. When he tried to stop the dealers, shots were fired leading to his death. Angry taxi operators took to the streets and blocked the roads so as to deal with the drug peddlers.
“A shooting which resulted in the death of a taxi driver is reported to have incited the riots, which led to two A Re Yeng buses, three Tshwane Bus Service (TBS) buses, a Gautrain bus and two trucks being utilised to block the roads. A Re Yeng and TBSoperations were halted for the rest of the day in the interest of safety,” Tshwane Transport MMC Sheila Senkubuge is quoted as saying.
Looters took the opportunity to steal from shops in the Pretoria city centre.
Twitter users are however blaming the chaos on Nigerians and pinning the death of said taxi driver on them.
See some of the tweets:
So South Africans are fighting each other in Sunnyside #pretoriacbd because of Nigerians !!! pic.twitter.com/yrcztirySn
— Mandla Gingirikani (@mandlamZA) August 28, 2019
#Pretoriashutdown #pretoriacbd #Pretoria
Tjo abashwe… But those Nigerians provoked the wrong group(taxi drivers), even South Africans don’t mess with them🙆🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/t6aC2A3797— Karabo Kgorane (@KgoraneKarabo45) August 28, 2019
Avoid using Pretoria CBD routes today. Apparently a South African man was shot by Nigerians after witnessing them selling drugs and seeing the actual supplier. May his soul Rest In Peace! 🙏🏽🙌🏽 #pretoriacbd pic.twitter.com/uGrmgjSzFl
— O L E T I L W E 🌈 (@Iam_Kardas) August 28, 2019
The Taxi driver who was shot dead while trying to stop Nigerian drug dealers from selling drugs to young boys at #pretoriacbd is a national hero and deserves a state funeral. As a nation we can’t continue to watch people destroying our countries youth while we do nothing about it pic.twitter.com/CIMioWx6PZ
— MikeRamothwala (@MikeRamothwala) August 28, 2019