Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry has retracted its “violence and terrorism” statement about the Soweto tavern massacre after backlash online.

This after Qatar called the mass shooting, which left at least 16 people dead and several wounded, an “act of terrorism”.

In a statement, which has since been deleted, Qatar said it “strongly condemned” the incident.

“The State of Qatar expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of the shooting incident which took place in the suburb of Soweto in the City of Johannesburg in SA and led to deaths and injuries.

“The ministry of foreign affairs affirms the State of Qatar’s firm position on the rejection of violence and terrorism, regardless of the motives and reasons.”

Amid the backlash from several social media users in SA, department of international relations and co-operation spokesperson Clayson Monyela intervened.

“Qatar is a good friend of SA. The intention of this statement is to pledge solidarity, which we welcome. I have spoken to [the] Qatar ambassador in SA who agrees we should wait for outcomes of investigations before labelling the incident,” said Monyela.

“After my discussions with the Qatar ambassador to SA and the Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson, our good friends at [the] ministry of foreign affairs have since withdrawn and deleted the statement on the shooting incident in Soweto. We thank them and appreciate their solidarity and support.”

Police minister Bheki Cele said a police tactical response team, know as the amabherethe, has been deployed in Soweto to help local police after the shooting.

Cele said the team would “reclaim the area from thugs”.

“By the time you go to bed, the team will be patrolling the area. You must know once I’ve deployed amabherethe you can’t ask me to collect them when they start doing their work. Once they have arrived it will be clear they are here.”

The minister said 135 spent AK-47 cartridges were picked up at the scene, together with cartridges from smaller pistols, and police were looking for five suspects.

Source: TimesLIVE