The Greater Gauteng Business Forum, an association of small shop owners, has told foreign businessmen trading in townships in and around Gauteng to "go back home".
Orange Farm, the neighbouring Sebokeng settlement, south of Johannesburg, and Diepsloot, north of the city, have all been hit by violence and looting that targets foreign owners of shops.
The association's chairman for the Tshwane region, Mpane Baloyi, said the government must stop issuing asylum permits to foreigners, or confine them to refugee camps.
"These people are not here because they have run away from their countries because they are in danger.
"They are here to destroy local business and people, particularly local shop owners, are boiling with anger.
"If nothing is done about this, there will be war," he threatened.
But Mpane denied that his group sought violence.
He said the association preferred to discuss with the government the effect the proliferation of foreign-owned shops had on local businesses.
"We have held a number of meetings with officials from the office of the Gauteng premier [Nomvula Mokonyane] and there has been a positive response.
"We have been trying in vain to secure an appointment with Home Affairs Minister [Naledi Pandor]," he said. Yesterday, 34-year-old Ethiopian Tegese Kenoro said he had to beg for his life while held at gunpoint at the Vukazchke supermarket, in Diepsloot.
About 20 people forced their way into the shop on Sunday night and stole R100000 worth of goods.
Kenoro, who lives at the supermarket, has been in South Africa for the past three years. He said he had been left with nothing but the clothes on his back.
"I am scared for my life but I have nowhere else to go.
"Everything is gone, I don't know how I am going to live my life," said Kenoro.
On Sunday night two men said to be looters were shot by a Somali shopkeeper.
Several foreigner-owned shops in the area have been looted. Many shop owners yesterday closed shop fearing more looting.
The police said calm had returned to the area, but police spokesman Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the police would continue to monitor the situation.
He said that nine people were arrested in Diepsloot last night for public violence and possession of suspected stolen goods.
Ward councillor Abraham Mabuke said a meeting would be held today "to convince the public to accept foreign nationals in our area and to preach the spirit of ubuntu among the community".
The director of the University of the Witwatersrand's African Centre for Migration and Society, Loren Landau, said there was a possibility that the nation would have to endure more of the xenophobic attacks that blighted 2008.
Landau said the attacks were not spontaneous but co-ordinated at local level by ward councillors who stood to benefit politically, and by business owners who would benefit if foreign competitors were driven away.
"In almost every instance that we have examined, there is a political or economic incentive and at least some level of local organisation.
"It is not angry people waking up one day and making a decision. Someone stands to benefit from the violence," he said.
Since 2008, 320 people have been killed in xenophobic attacks.
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