MagRush writer  | September 8, 2019

One person has died and five injured in Johannesburg CBD today, South African Police Service (SAPS) confirmed.

A building has been set on fire in Malvern, Johannesburg, and “20 arrested”, SABC reporting tonight. Emergency vehicles battled to access the area to extinguish the raging blaze, the SABC reporter said on the scene.

Earlier in the day, a group of Johannesburg hostel dwellers in Jeppetown shunned Mangosutho Buthelezi address during Inkata Freedom Party (IFP) rally and took to the CBD, chanting in their way demanding that foreigners must leave the country.

Fearing for their lives, some of the foreigners assembled to defend themselves in the wake of the widespread attacks by disgruntled South Africans, said the Gauteng police.

The city of Johannesburg was chaotic today and remains under serious threat. The police are finding in hard to predict the sporadic deadly unrests in different areas but vowed to increase visibility.

Speaking to Newz Room Africa, Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Alias Mawela urged members of the society to calm down and allow the police and other vital stakeholders to find solutions. While Mawela appealed to the public to give government space to deal with violence, he said some of the “challenges are beyond police control”. However, perpetrators of violence are going to be arrested, he emphasized.