Life is gradually returning to normal in South Africa after Tuesday’s protests by locals, which disrupted activities across the country.

Many businesses, shops and malls were closed.

However, this did not prevent looting, as protesters raided many shops and supermarkets, looting and carting away valuables.

Many of the affected businesses, shops and supermarkets were owned by foreigners.

There has been no report of any Nigerian-owned business or shop being affected.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has arranged the evacuation of another batch of over 200 stranded Nigerian nationals from South Africa.

According to the information, the evacuation will be carried out this week.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, confirmed the planned evacuation.

Though he was unable to confirm the exact date at the time of filing this story.

The President of Nigerian Citizens in South Africa, Rev. Frank Onyekwelu, who confirmed the current situation in South Africa, also corroborated the report of another evacuation.

Onyekwelu disclosed that another airlift is scheduled for Thursday, with over 200 people set for evacuation.

He said, “Okay, so far we have not received any report of our nationals being attacked. However, there has been some looting of shops across the country.

“Even as at 8 p.m. last night, we got confirmation that locals were breaking into foreign nationals’ shops and looting goods from supermarkets. Even one citizen, one local, was shot, and I think he died. He was killed in the process, but it has not been confirmed where the shot came from. That was in Johannesburg. Two or three shops owned by foreign nationals were also confirmed to have been looted.

So that is the situation. We are still collecting data and monitoring the situation. Activities are resuming gradually.

“People are opening their businesses today. People are going to their shops today. We’re monitoring the whole situation.

Another piece of good news is that we’ve just confirmed that another flight is coming from Nigeria, arriving tomorrow to evacuate another 271 of our nationals. So that’s some good news.” (The Nation)

•Another batch of Nigerians evacuated from South Africa arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: AYODELEE ADENIRAN