Four youngsters aged between 16 and 26 are behind bars for allegedly accepting cash and tik bribes to kill Somali shopkeepers.

The Bloekombos quartet are accused of taking money from jealous local businessmen who want the rival Somali store owners out of their area.

The young men were allegedly given guns, money and drugs to kill the Somali shopkeepers and burn their shops.

Monica Fritz, 55, said her nephew Terrance Fritz, 26, was arrested last week for allegedly taking part in recent attacks.

“Last Thursday the police knocked on our door late at night and arrested my nephew,” she said.

“Apparently they had arrested another boy earlier in the week who they believed had taken part in all the Somali attacks that have been going on in the area.

“So this boy told police that he wasn’t working alone and that, in fact, he and a few others had been paid by shop owners to kill Somali shopkeepers.”

Fritz said she had heard Terrance and other young men were paid between R60 and R100 and given tik straws and a gun to kill or burn foreign-owned shops.

“From what I hear, the boys would be sent out with the guns which were later taken back after the mission was completed,” she said.

Fritz, who raised Terrance, said the whole community had been talking about the Somali attacks months before they started.

“People talk in our area and a few weeks before this thing began, there was a rumour that xenophobic attacks were going to come back,” she said.

“I heard Somali shopkeepers were being told to go back to their countries if they didn’t want to get hurt.

“What I don’t understand is why these people used our children to kill.”

Fritz said the only explanation is the young men’s greed for their next tik fix.

“Tik is a horrible thing because that is how they lured them in, the message was clear ‘Drug yourselves so that you can have the heart to kill’,” she said.

Terrance’s mother Frances Fritz said it wasn’t her son’s fault that grown men took advantage of him.

Eunice January, 47, mother of Xolisa, 24, said she had only learned of her son’s alleged involvement after he was arrested.

“I didn’t know or suspect anything until the police kicked down the door to his shack outside and arrested him,” she said.

“I later heard that he and a few others were bought by local businessmen to terrorise Somalis.

“I felt sick and horrible when I heard that grown men used our children to murder.

“My son was a well-behaved person at home but with children one never knows because we don’t know what they get up to when they are outside, so I don’t know what to believe.”

Bloekombos Somali teenager Mohamed Husen, 19, said his 17-year-old brother had been shot in their shop over two weeks ago.

“He was alone in the shop and these three guys came in to buy two cigarettes,” he said.

“Apparently they gave him a R50 and when he turned back to get their change, they shot him in the back and fled.

“Nobody knows what their motives were because they didn’t rob the shop or even wait for their change.”

Shopkeeper Abdul Fatah, 30, said he has been threatened a lot since he moved to the area.

“I’ve been here for nearly a year and I’ve been getting threats,” he said.

“We’re being told to leave and go back home because as soon as the World Cup is over, we are going to get hurt.

“Although my shop hasn’t been vandalised, I’ve heard a lot of things about shops being broken into and burned down.

“We are all very scared and some other people have already left the country.” – Daily Voice

http://www.iol.co.za/ (By Tshego Lepule)