Operation Fiela was in the news two weeks ago, but the foreign nationals were still in the dark about what it was about.
Numerous allegations were thrown around and the foreign national shop owners were very upset about the fact that their shops were closed down.
Shops were raided and arrests were made during the initial operation and a week later, the police returned.
The second raid took place on Monday, February 25 when shop owners did not close the shops as they were instructed.
Expired foods were also removed from the shelves.
The operation took place under Brig Delisiwe Motha, Station Commander at the Vosman Police Station.
Numerous complaints have surfaced after these operations, but the police spokesperson for Vosman Police Station, Const Kgomotso Maluleke said that an incident that was reported at the station sparked these raids.
She added that if these business owners followed the correct rules and paid their employees, this could have been avoided.
“When you want to operate a shop at a residential premise, you must apply for rezoning. If you want the residential area to be changed to a business area, you apply for it at the municipality. The application thereof will not help you, it must be approved,” Const Maluleke said.
“You cannot sell stale or old products, some of these products have expired but it’s still on the shelves. There are cats in the boxes where the fruits and vegetables are kept, but they still sell it to the people. Kids eat this.”
Shop owners alleged that police did not have the correct paperwork when their shops were raided and said that nothing was written down.
The correct procedures were not followed.
The shop owners claimed that they were badly treated by police, as they were told to go to their own country, they do not belong here.
“The police told us to go back where we came from, we are foreigners,” said one of the shop owners.
Police denied these allegations and assured the media that all paperwork is done, and that they charged the shop owners with the Mpumalanga Business Act, 2/1996 that states that you may not operate a business in a residential area.
The suspects did appear before Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, February 26 but were released.
