We would like to report a side of the story regarding the Refugee “Sit In” that the media ,Human Rights Agencies and most people in South Africa aren’t aware of.

Papi Sukami, the self proclaimed leader of the Cape Town refugee “Sit In”, a foreigner from DRC who portrays himself before the South African Media,the Refugee and Human Right organizations and the public as a victim of Xenophobia ,looting , aggression by South Africans is actually a perpetrator of several criminal acts and leader of a group of criminals taking advantage of the community and the real suffering of refugees for their personal and selfish gain.

At this present moment a warrant of arrest has been issued by the Cape Town South African Police station against Papi Sukami for death threat , aggression and robbery of Serge Shaumba and Jurol Loemba ( case Number 1007/10/2019).The case is being investigated by a Detective from Cape Town SAPS ( CBD).

While Papi Sukami and his team portray all South Africans as evil doers , Xenophobic people who kill, rob and agress foreigners, the truth is that they are guilty of committing similar criminal acts within the community they operate.
On the 16th of October 2019, we ( Serge Shaumba and myself Jurol Loemba )who are both in the Media industry and also conduct philanthropic activities were attacked and robbed by Papi Sukami and his criminal crew when we went to cover the Cape Town Refugee Sit In, interview refugees and take note of their needs in order to see how we could assist them.
When we arrived we asked to speak to the person in charge/ leader to get shooting permission and also interview him as well as other refugees protesting at the UN refugee Agency. The people introduced us to the person in charge named Jean Pierre Balous with whom we peacefully conducted several interviews regarding the pain and conditions in which refugees lived and their desire to be relocated elsewhere. Everything was going well until Papi and his criminal team arrived , he ordered his team to take hold of us , they started brutalizing Serge Shaumba accusing him for shooting without permission and being sent by the DRC Ambassador , when the refugees told them that we had the permission to shoot and even did an interview with Jean Pierre Balous the person in charge, they quickly find another lie and accused Jurol Loemba for being a Congolese spy coming straight from London assigned by the current President of DRC Mr Felix Tshisekedi to boycott the refugees , when I showed them my ID proving that I live in South Africa and was actually a Congolese from Congo Brazzaville, Papi and his team asked me a very Xenophobic question “ You are from Congo Brazzaville so what are you doing with a guy from DRC ( Serge Shaumba)?”, I replied by telling them that how can you be accusing South Africans for being Xenophobic while you make xenophobic statement and brutalize your own African brothers . We quickly realized that their mission was to aggress and rob us because even though some of the refugees told them that we were there to help , they refused to listen, one of the ladies run to call Jean Pierre Balous to confirm that we were there to help but even his presence changed nothing as Papi gave his team the order to beat us and rob us ,Serge Shaumba was beaten to the point that he had to go to the hospital for treatment after some refugees helped us to escape before something worse happened . All the refugees who dared to intervene on our behalf that day were threatened by Papi and his team who stole our Media equipment worth more than 60000 Rand ( 2 Professional cameras,microphones, stabilizers, light, lens etc) and our personal stuff ( 1 Samsung Note 5, 1 Iphone, wallets, money etc).Without wallet, cellphone to call anyone to pick me up as Serge Shaumba left with the car when he managed to escape with the help of some refugees who were there; it was a kind refugee lady from DRC who gave me 20 Rand to grab a Taxi around 9PM, it was the same lady who run to call Jean Pierre Balous when we were being aggressed and robed by Papi and his Team.

After that event some refugees from the Congolese community who were afraid to speak up before Papi and his criminal gang told me that these are the criminal acts they are committing within the community , people are fed up but they are afraid to speak up because they might be attacked like you. They also told me that the main reason they attacked us was because Serge Shaumba who is a journalist did a video few weeks earlier in which he urged Papi Sukami who claimed to be a community leader to live by example because Papi condemns DRC Politicians for being corrupt , stealing state money, abusing power, being involved in sexual scandal, preventing freedom of expression, beating and killing their people while he is doing the same thing in the community. When Papi saw that video he gave an order to his criminal gang to hunt down Serge Shaumba , beat him and rob his work equipment wherever they find him and this is exactly what they did on Wednesday 16th of October 2019 in the presence of Papi Sukami .

Even though we tried to solve the issue within the community, Papi Sukami refused to listen to the community leaders of DRC in Cape Town and told us that he is scared of no one , not even the South African Justice system, nor the SA Police can stop him.
That’s the reason why we would like the Media, the Human Rights bodies, South African People and Refugees being deceived to be aware of the criminal identity and activities of Papi Sukami and his team who have been threatening to kill us and even attacked us in front of the Police officers who came to arrest him and serve him a protection order as they were threatening to kill us. The police officers couldn’t arrest him that day to avoid hurting any innocent person because Papi and his team misled the crowd into believing that the Police came to oppose the refugees and he used the innocent Refugee as a shield to prevent the cops from arresting him.

We have audios of Papi Sukami threatening to rob and pierce the eyes or Serge Shaumba, we have audios of people testifying about his criminal acts in the community , we have audio of witnesses who were there when Papi Sukami and his team aggressed and robbed us; we ourselves are witnesses and victims of his threats and criminal deeds.

He even made an audio spreading lies that the South African Government and the Police killed 2 refugees . The purpose of this propaganda is to push foreigners to hate South Africans ,revolt and create chaos . It is because of criminals like Papi and his criminal Gang that foreigners now have a bad reputation in South Africa. That’s why we decided to expose them before they commit worse crimes. We believe in the rights of Refugees, Foreigners but we also believe in the rights of South Africans to be safe and protect their own country from criminals whether national or non national. We are against xenophobic attacks done by some South Africans but we are equally against crimes committed by foreigners in South Africa. We stand for the respect and rights of all Humanity.

Our Contact details : Jurol Loemba (067 293 6249) & Serge Shaumba ( 063 207 9510) –South Africa
Email : ambassadorlj@gmail.com