Schwartzerwitz: Residents threaten to loot Somali shops

Friday, July 20, 2012

Residents threaten to loot Somali shops

RESIDENTS of Nompumelelo town ship yesterday threatened to loot and vandalise a new spaza shop which they claim is a contravention of an agreement reached two years ago.

Members of the Beacon Bay police and law enforcement officers from the Buffalo City Metro (BCM) were called in to intervene.

Ward councillor Makhaya Bophi said the owner of the new spaza shop had contravened a 2010 agreement signed between local residents, members of the Somali community and BCM law enforcement officials.

The agreement, he said, prohibited further establishment of Somali- owned shops in the township. There are were currently 11 legally owned Somali spaza shops.

However, Bophi said last week resident Vuyo Ndeyisile rented out his corrugated church structure to a Somali an national who then turned it into a spaza shop. This angered the community.

“We held a meeting this past Saturday and we agreed that this spaza shop must stop operating, but our request fell on deaf ears,” Bophi said. “To show that we are not xenophobic, we had to call police to come and shut down this spaza shop on the com munity’s behalf.

“This area cannot afford to have any more Somali-owned shops because our own brothers and sisters need a chance to open their businesses.” he said, adding that jobs were hard to find for local residents.

Ndeyisile, who had locked himself up in the spaza shop, refused to open when police ordered him to do so.

“The community cannot rule in my yard,” he said to members of the police.

Law enforcement officers then is sued Ndeyisile with a R1000 fine for letting his property to an illegal business, which was operating without a licence.

Mohamed Hasan, a Somali businessman in the area, said he sup ported the call for the spaza shop to close.

“In order to avoid xenophobia, the shop must close and stop operating. That spaza shop is starting to make trouble for us. We do not want to upset the community,” he said.

Law enforcement warned Ndeyisile that should the business operate again, they would confiscate all goods.

Petros Majola of human rights group Khula Community Development Project condemned the calls for closure.

“We are quick to say that these foreign-owned shops must close, but are we going to provide these Somalis with food and clothing,” he said. , adding that the country’s constitution catered for their rights.

“These people are not selling drugs, they are selling groceries and blankets to our people.”

Majola, who claims to know both Ndeyisile and the owner of the business, said his organisation would be seeking legal advice (from DespatchOnline)

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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.