On Monday, a group of anti-illegal immigrant activists targeted stalls owned by foreign nationals in Marabastad demanding that all illegal foreigners leave South Africa and this sparked fears among informal traders whose stalls were ransacked.
The South African Concerns Resident Association (SACRA) representative, Lucas Makhubele said they had a meeting with business, informal trader and taxi association to map a way forward admitting that “things got out of hand” yesterday during the demonstration.
Makhubele said residents of Tshwane want their capital city back and they want illegal immigrants gone.
“We were part of that thing yesterday. It is just that some of the leaders who organised that thing were not there yesterday. So hence things got out of hand. But today we met with business owners, taxi associations and some informal traders.
“We were trying to fix things and we mapped a way forward as to how we will manage this going forward. The problem is that businesses and informal traders said they were caught by surprise and no one informed them regarding what happened yesterday. For now we are going to prepare and map a way forward,” said Makhubele.
Tshwane Civic Movement( TCM) representative, Kgomotso Sephelle said illegal foreigners are taking South African jobs and locals can’t open stalls.
“Our aim is to see illegal foreign nationals leaving the country and they shouldn’t be employed. Most of our people are unemployed and they are the ones working. They have closed spaces and they are the only ones selling on the street. When our people attempt to open stalls they treat them so badly and we are tired of that. The government needs to address this issue they know about,” said Sephelle.
The African Diaspora Forum (ADF) believes the South African government needs to take action on illegal immigration saying it is a scourge that is creating problems for the host country.
Commenting on the events in Tshwane, the ADF chairperson Vusumuzi Sibanda said illegal immigration or irregular immigration is not something that is desirable and countries should have systems in place to make sure that people coming into their country are properly documented.
“And everybody that travels in the country has got documents to take them into that country. There are various visa regimes that should allow people to be properly documented. We really think that illegal immigration is a scourge because the problems with illegal immigration and undocumented people is that governments cannot plan properly when they don’t know who is in the country and how many people are in the country.
“Crime also becomes a problem because some people are not documented and they can commit crime and get away with it. So illegal immigration should be dealt with and there should be a lasting solution to it,” said Sibanda.
Newsnote visited the stalls that were ransacked by the protesters and found some defiant informal traders who had set up their businesses for operations despite calls for them to leave the country, saying they have proper documents to be in South Africa but they are now leaving in fear.
Zimbabwean Mago Mshavasha who sells brooms, feather dusters and wooden spoons denied that he is in the country illegally but he too was targeted by the mob who took his wares and damaged and vandalised some of his stock.
“There was a lady who sells at the corner, they attacked her with the broom sticks. We are foreigners but we have the correct documents. Even if immigration officials were to come here I won’t be afraid because I have the documents. I have a passport and a permit.
“Our documents are all here with us. It is the community that came here and not the law enforcement authorities. It is not fair. It has affected even business as you can see we are here but our customers won’t come because most of them are foreign nationals.
“The majority of our customers are foreigners. People from Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Lesotho are most of our customers. So when things are like this, it means no business. It is very embarrassing but there is nothing we can do. It is not fair. I am scared but there is nothing I can do because my life is here, he added.
While 57-year-old Tendai Pasipanodya who sells beans, peanuts and spinach in Marabastad said he is scared but warned that fighting them (foreigners) won’t solve the illegal immigration crisis in the country.
“They are affecting us very much because sometimes we are afraid like yesterday we never worked because people were damaging our things. They never told us that we shouldn’t open. They were supposed to tell us not to open. It was closed to respect their issue.
“We closed when we heard there were people coming. Everyone was closed but they managed to open those things and throw them away. That is fighting. That is what we call fighting and even if you fight from morning until sunset we are not solving anything. We are not solving anything.
“We lost some of our stock and these things are expensive. It was better for them to say you people go, then we will be happy. But fighting is not nice because most of us are old people. How can someone my age go and steal something? I don’t like selling here but I have school-going kids at home,” said Pasipanodya.
