Kaya 959 Reporter
Gunshots were fired and shops and minibus taxis set alight, causing pandemonium on Durban Road in Korsten, Gqeberha on Wednesday, 13 October.
Pedestrians, shoppers and motorists fled in all directions to get to safety when the violence erupted. A Herald news photographer on the scene counted at least eight gutted taxis. Three more were damaged and two other vehicles were burnt out.
According to an eyewitness, a motor accident between two men sparked the violence.
The woman, who did not want to be named for fear of her safety, said moments after the accident happened the two men got into a verbal altercation which led to a fist-fight.
This is not Afghanistan or Syria. This is Gqeberha, and Somalians are parading with heavy machinery after they burned taxis. Our country has become lawless, and no one respects the law of rule now. Cry my beloved country 😥 pic.twitter.com/xYUKDc8rmZ
— Fusi Nkoala (@Iam_Fusi) October 13, 2021
“They started arguing. She alleged that one of the men, a Somali, pulled out a gun and shot the other man, presumed by onlookers to be a taxi driver.There was a shoot-out. People started to set the Somali shops in Durban Road alight and in turn they started burning the taxis.”
Another person on the scene said he had witnessed the taxi driver fighting with the “Somali man”.
WATCH: Violence escalated between taxi drivers and Somalians in Port Elizabeth/ Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape today. Vehicles and shops set on fire. #RIOTS https://t.co/r7DHtFF4ES pic.twitter.com/ZjZXIdlosN
— Ian Cameron (@IanCameron23) October 13, 2021
Police spokesperson Col Priscilla Naidu confirmed that the police were on the scene and trying to restore calm.



