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Tessie Udegboka Nkechi - My Blog
Tessie Udegboka Nkechi - My Blog
HOW I WITNESSED AND SURVIVED THE JOHANNESBURG ATTACK
Related to country: South Africa

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It was SATURDAY evening,31st of May,was preparing to get my materials ready for a workshop in Capetown, so i left Jules street in Joburg to Randburg to copy some needed materials from a friend's system to my flash disk. Since my flight is 9am the following day and still have vital preparation to make that night, i took a metered taxi straight to Jules. Passing through the famous Bree street and before getting to Jeppe street. We saw helicopters hovering in the sky and beeping out an unusual noise.

Initially, nobody knew what was going on,so we kept on moving. As we are about to enter the Jules street, we found out that the policemen blocked all the connecting roads leading to Jules with their vehicles. As we reversed to take Hans street, the frightening noise from the helicopters increased and sounds of gun shots everywhere and people were running for their dear lives. I saw some who were hit by the bullet and fell down while running.
Immediately, the taxi man said he is taking me back to Randburg, that a serious danger lies ahead should we continue moving. As he turned to drive back to Randburg, knowing that i'll fly to Capetown the next day by 9am, i started pleading with him to let me alight there, that i will pay him his complete money. He refused saying he can't leave me in that danger zone. I insisted, so he let me go.
Immediately i alighted, i started shivering, the gunshots kept on coming. i started running but no where to run to, all the shops and houses are locked and winter cold that night was unbearable for me. I started regretting not following the taxi man. I was crying and calling my relations on phone but nobody dare drive out that night.
At about 10.30pm, a cab drove past, i stopped it and entered to Jules, then the gun shots has minimised and the police have ublocked the roads.I saw the rarely-seen poice armoured car patrol round shooting. I asked the driver what is going on, he said they are fighting the foreigners, immediately, i became more scared. On getting to the complex where i stay in Jules, the security men to open gate for me where no where to be found. They've all run for their dear lives too. I stood lonely in that cold winter night looking up to heaven to know where my help will come from.
Immediately, the sound of shots came close to where i was standing and shivering, i hid under a parked car and they later set the car ablaze. I was informed through the phone that i should enter the complex through the back gate, where the security men are hiding. I went round and lo! entered through the back gate. This is how i escaped.
It was already past midnight when i entered the house. Throughout that night till the early hours, the helicopters kept on distracting the the criminals from carrying out their planned actions. On Monday morning,as i was going to the airport, corpses littered the streets of Jules and its surrounding. Smokes were still coming out from the cars they set ablaze. All the foreighner's shops in the area was attacked but they didn't succeed in getting into all. The shops they gained entrace into, were completely raided and nothing left inside them. But the ones they couldn't enter were destroyed with bullets. One of the known club house in the area and owned by a Nigerian was raided too.
May God console my Nigerian brothers whose shops were affected by this recent attack and set them up with progress. May the souls (could have been one of them) of those who died that same night rest well in the Lord and may those injured during the violence and still hospitalised, gain quick recovery. Amen.

UDEGBOKA TESSIE NKECHI
, tessyleen@yahoo.com, 080 3384 2029

October 14, 2008 | 3:43 PM Comments  0 comments

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