The Department of Home Affairs, in charge of registering refugees and asylum seekers has earlier last year revealed that there were more than 32,000 documented Somalis living in South Africa, according to the BBC. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also confirmed that Somali nationals were the second largest group of asylum seekers in South Africa — after Zimbabweans.

Cape town (Sunatimes) Somali Community in South Africa has hailed the recent assertion by the Somali prime minister that South Africa will re-open its embassy in Mogadishu after 20 years of absence.

Somali prime minister was recently quoted as saying that South Africa will open its embassy in Mogadishu while Somalia will have its embassy in Pretoria.

Some Community members told Bar-kulan that the proposed diplomatic missions in Pretoria and Mogadishu will strengthen relations between local South African and Somalis living in the country as refugees.

Many thousands of Somalis have fled famine and warfare at home, braving a treacherous journey across the continent to reach South Africa, with most of the Somali population in South Africa living in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.

The Department of Home Affairs, in charge of registering refugees and asylum seekers has earlier last year revealed that there were more than 32,000 documented Somalis living in South Africa, according to the BBC.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also confirmed that Somali nationals were the second largest group of asylum seekers in South Africa — after Zimbabweans.

Many Somalis own spaza shops — makeshift kiosks usually run from private houses or a shack of corrugated iron. But due poverty and high unemployment in South Africa, foreigners including Somalis are prone to attacks and shops are looted or burned down as a result.

In 2008, South Africa saw a wave of xenophobic violence which saw foreigners mainly Somalis necklaced — set alight with petrol doused tyres around their necks — and their shops were burned down.