Schwartzerwitz: Cut number of foreign spaza shops

Monday, June 25, 2012

Cut number of foreign spaza shops - Western Cape ANC

The ANC in the Western Cape wants the government to cut the number of foreign-owned spaza shops and will push for this during the party’s policy conference in Joburg this week.

ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said party branches, especially those in townships, were concerned that the majority of the province’s spaza shops were owned, managed and staffed by foreigners, and that locals were “losing out”.

“The ratio between the number of migrants who own spaza shops and locals is completely out,” Mjongile said. “We need a balance around small enterprises in our communities.

“The government must find a way to support locals so that they too can open shops and be economically active, but then the number of foreign-owned spaza shops has to be cut.”

In its Peace and Stability policy document, which is to be discussed at Gallagher Estate this week, the ANC proposes that non-South Africans should not run spaza shops without adhering to “certain legislated prescripts”, which may or may not be different to those applying to South Africans.

Mjongile said the ANC in the Western Cape supported the proposals in the document “100 percent” and that it would be “pushing hard” to ensure that resolutions were made in its favour and adopted.

The document says “non-South Africans should not be allowed to buy or run spaza shops or larger businesses without having to comply with local laws”. It also says that “laws and by-laws have to be made in a way that impacts positively rather than negatively on the informal economic sector”, and argues that the renting of houses by asylum seekers from South Africans for informal trading may contravene by-laws.

Calling for a strengthening and proper enforcement of municipal by-laws, it says: “Ideally municipalities should know who lives and works and runs businesses in their area as well as their status.”

Refugee rights group Passop has described the proposals as “unconstitutional” and “foolish”.

Passop’s Braam Hanekom said he was shocked and surprised that the Western Cape ANC had indicated it would support the document.

“As Passop, we strongly oppose it. It is unconstitutional and a foolish move,” Hanekom said.

He added that it was “extremely concerning” that some of the proposals in this discussion document were already being implemented”.

Hanekom said closing the refugee reception centre in Cape Town and moving it to the border was one of the proposals.

He said while it might be too late to call a meeting with the leadership of the ANC in the Western Cape, Passop would do “everything possible” to ensure that the proposals were rejected. “Supporting this policy document is not in the interest of the communities that the ANC represents,” he said.

“This is anti-immigrant and violates refugee rights.

“The spaza shop owners feed these communities, their prices are the cheapest. The ANC seems to be more concerned about the businessmen and elite in the townships and not the poor families who depend on the foreign-owned spaza shops for cheaper loaves of bread and cups of rice.”

Spaza shop owners are livid about the proposals. (from IOL)

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Every Pogrom needs an Armband....

Welcome to Schwartzerwitz. The inevitable consequence of 4 million illegal immigrants arriving in South Africa. More desperate than our local folk they are willing to work longer harder faster for less. The immigrants are more reliable than South African unskilled labour and have outcompeted the local folk. No matter what anyone says it's not FAIR on our locals. Adding 4 million hungry mouths to the country has exacerbated the rocketing food prices felt across the globe. Adding 4 million potential electricity users to the mix has undoubtedly worsened the electricity situation. Having 4 million people send home money to their family drains the economy of money which should stay within the borders. Adding 4 million people and not registering them as taxpayers has cost the country billions. What chance does our government of ridding the country of shacks as per the Millennium Development Goal when 4 million immigrants build/rent shacks. Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe....? Just move to a shack in South Africa. On an individual basis this site condemns violent acts against individuals. However as a collective the illegal immigrants deserve no sympathy and should be deported back from whence they came. These people are economic refugees - "not real refugees" - and they are(generally speaking) in South Africa illegally.

kwerekwere.

The inside cover of my Oxford English dictionary features a word with which I have become all too familiar: the word is kwerekwere.

(It may be more familiar to you with one of its vernacular language–dependant prefixes prepended — the Sotho singular being le– and plural ma–, the Nguni singular being i– and plural ama–). This word is used to refer to black (in the morphological sense) Africans who are not South Africans — South African being defined as Sotho, Nguni, Venda and Tsonga ethnic groups (by that measure the Swazis, Batswana, etc. would be South African?). This word has a very negative sting to it and is often used with contempt. From what I gather it has undertones which speak of how black Africans are believed to be sub–human, too dark and have a pungent smell.