Foreign traders living in fear

Although traders approached by Kathorus MAIL for comment hailed the MEC’s visit as “significant” and “important”, few among them believe it will make a difference and bring the desired change of attitude towards foreigners by the locals. Some said they saw no future in South Africa’s townships after what they claim is the fourth such unprovoked attack against foreign traders in Katlehong since 2008.

However, those who said they would like to stay and continue with their businesses, albeit with caution, have opted to increase security by adding extra barricades to their informal backyard shops. Meanwhile several others, who have been severely affected financially by the attacks, have since closed shop and left the townships.

“I’m a businessman and this uncertainty about my future is bad for my business,” said Pakistani trader, Imraan Dakur, who operates a spaza shop with his young cousins, Omar and Ahmed, at the Tsietsi low-cost housing complex, south of Kathorus. He told Kathorus MAIL that he has survived three other previous attacks in Katlehong in 2008 and recently last June in Soweto.

Imraan is also contemplating relocating with his cousins to another province because of the erratic attacks in Gautent townships. “Alternatively, I may be forced to send my two cousins back to our family in Pakistan,” added Imraan as an afterthought. “I am losing money each time something like this happens. I’ll give it one more chance and if the violence flares up again, I’m out of here,” he said.

Adhaa Mohammad, an Ethiopian spaza shop owner, said many of the attacks against foreigners are more criminal than xenophobic. “The people in South Africa are kind and non-violent, but it is the few criminal elements among them who are causing all these problems for us because they think we are easy targets,” said Mohammad, who said he believes the police need to be more visible to curb crime and violence aimed at foreign traders in the townships.

Amir Bashira, a Somali national who claims to have been living in South Africa since 2002, and runs a spaza shop in Katlehong South, told Kathorus MAIL, that the violent attacks against foreigners have forced many of his countrymen and other foreign nationals to seek “greener pastures” in other provinces. “But one is always conscious of the fact that as a foreigner, I may be someone’s target for crime or violence,” explained Bashira, who confessed that he and his family who have been living in South Africa, pending their immigration status, are no strangers to acts of violence in their chosen country of residence.

The recent attacks on foreign-owned shops saw hundreds of foreign traders chased out of the township and their rented shops looted, in Katlehong’s suburbs of Nhlapho, Shongweni and Moshoeshoe Sections in Katlehong as well as in the neighbouring Mandela Park informal settlement. A number of them were forced to spend two nights outside the Katlehong North police station where they sought refuge.

The majority of affected foreign spaza shop owners include Pakistanis, Bangladeshi, Somalis and Ethiopians who operate informal backyard shops in different suburbs around Katlehong. To curb the attacks from spreading to other areas around Kathorus, the SAPS immediately dispatched its members to the affected parts of the sprawling townships to quell the violence, which police say resulted in the death of a young man and that of an unborn baby whose pregnant mother was caught in the mayhem.

Themba Tebe, the Katlehong-based Parliamentary Constituency Representative responsible for councillors in Katlehong and Thokoza, told Kathorus MAIL that a prayer meeting held at the Incredible Happenings Church in Katlehong on Sunday, April 10, was aimed at bridging divisions between the locals and foreign traders.