Jean-Jacques Cornish

Death toll from attacks on foreign shops rises to four

A fourth person has died in three days of looting  foreign-owned shops around Johannesburg.

The shop owners say the attacks started after a newspaper reports that they were selling fake and expired goods  which they strongly deny.

A woman who was with a group of looters at a township west of Johannesburg was shot dead yesterday (Friday).

No arrested have been made with regards this incident. Police are waiting for the woman’s family to identify her.

On Wednesday and Thursday three people were shot during looting in the giant township of Soweto.

Police have made 27 arrests in connection with this.

They include one Somali who allegedly fired at a young man taking goods from his store.

All four victims are South African.

No foreigners have been killed.

Residents have attacked one another trying to get possession of stolen goods.

The attacks were most led by youths who broke locks and removed stock while the owners either fled or hid.

Police have seized goods from foreign-owned shops  and health authorities are testing the food for freshness.

Both Johannesburg and Durban were centre of the worst outbreak of xenophobic violence in 2008 wheat least 62  people were killed.

At least people were killed in attacks on foreign these two cities three years ago.

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.