About 500 people from Cala and surrounding areas marched to Cala Magistrate’s Court where a foreign national was appearing for the murder of his South African girlfriend.
They picketed outside the court with placards calling for no bail.
Most of the crowd expressed hostility towards foreigners and when some called for foreigners to stay they were booed.
A large contingent of police from Queenstown, Aliwal North and Cala have been deployed in Cala since Thursday.
Rendy Ussen, 30, of Malawi, made a brief appearance and the case was postponed to April 28 for an interpreter and formal bail application.
The accused was remanded in custody.
Police earlier said Ussen was Zimbabwean, but yesterday in court it emerged he was Malawian.
Ussen is alleged to have murdered his live-in girlfriend, Zandile Dudumashe, whose dismembered body was found in a sack in a donga.
Her leg is believed to have been found protruding from shallow grave in Cala’s Extension 15.
Berhanu Wolcaht Wote of Ethiopia, 38, later appeared in the same court charged with illegal possession of a firearm. It was apparently confiscated after he tried to defend himself from a mob.
That case was also postponed to April 28, also for an interpreter.
Some protesters called for shops run by foreigners to remain closed until after Dudumashe was buried.
There were also a few demands that foreigners club together and help pay for the burial, the tombstone and financial support for her three-year-old child.
Dudumashe will be buried on Saturday at her home village of Manzimdaka near Cala.
Sakhizwe mayor Mlamli Jentile spoke to the crowd outside the court, calling for calm.
While most people in the crowd called for the deportation of foreigners, there were others who called for foreign nationals to be embraced by the community, saying foreign nationals were their boyfriends and the fathers of their children.
“Please do not commit crime, or harm any of our African brothers.
“Instead, let us live with them in harmony,” urged Jentile.
Jentile said a meeting would be held in Cala’s Extension 15 to talk about local problems.
Safety and liaison MEC Weziwe Tikana will be in Cala today to meet with key stakeholders to talk about xenophobic attacks.
Cala shops run by foreign nationals have been shut since Thursday. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za
Tensions run high in court
They picketed outside the court with placards calling for no bail.
Most of the crowd expressed hostility towards foreigners and when some called for foreigners to stay they were booed.
A large contingent of police from Queenstown, Aliwal North and Cala have been deployed in Cala since Thursday.
Rendy Ussen, 30, of Malawi, made a brief appearance and the case was postponed to April 28 for an interpreter and formal bail application.
The accused was remanded in custody.
Police earlier said Ussen was Zimbabwean, but yesterday in court it emerged he was Malawian.
Ussen is alleged to have murdered his live-in girlfriend, Zandile Dudumashe, whose dismembered body was found in a sack in a donga.
Her leg is believed to have been found protruding from shallow grave in Cala’s Extension 15.
Berhanu Wolcaht Wote of Ethiopia, 38, later appeared in the same court charged with illegal possession of a firearm. It was apparently confiscated after he tried to defend himself from a mob.
That case was also postponed to April 28, also for an interpreter.
Some protesters called for shops run by foreigners to remain closed until after Dudumashe was buried.
There were also a few demands that foreigners club together and help pay for the burial, the tombstone and financial support for her three-year-old child.
Dudumashe will be buried on Saturday at her home village of Manzimdaka near Cala.
Sakhizwe mayor Mlamli Jentile spoke to the crowd outside the court, calling for calm.
While most people in the crowd called for the deportation of foreigners, there were others who called for foreign nationals to be embraced by the community, saying foreign nationals were their boyfriends and the fathers of their children.
“Please do not commit crime, or harm any of our African brothers.
“Instead, let us live with them in harmony,” urged Jentile.
Jentile said a meeting would be held in Cala’s Extension 15 to talk about local problems.
Safety and liaison MEC Weziwe Tikana will be in Cala today to meet with key stakeholders to talk about xenophobic attacks.
Cala shops run by foreign nationals have been shut since Thursday. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za
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