Foreign shopkeepers blame officials for 'Xenophobic attacks' (video)

By Lucky Biyase
Sunday, March 1, 2015

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A group of Somali businessmen in Embalenhle township near Secunda, Mpumalanga, accused the Govan Mbeki municipality of bulldozing their spaza shops.

When they resorted to using containers, their new "shops" were confiscated, they said.

Municipal spokesman Henry Masango would neither confirm nor deny that demolitions and confiscations had taken place, saying he would respond "later".

Robert Mashiane, the municipality's regional manager, refused to respond to the claims, but denied he was xenophobic. He has been accused by the shopkeepers of being at the centre of the actions against their businesses.

Mohamud Muhamed Walsame, a Somali entrepreneur who has been in South Africa for 14 years and said he ran businesses in Polokwane, Johannesburg and Cape Town as well as in Secunda, said that in June Mashiane had attended a meeting of shopkeepers and police to discuss rising crime and attacks against foreigners. Walsame said the meeting had been called after two foreigners had been killed in robberies.

He said Mashiane, in the presence of senior police officers, said he was happy foreigners were being killed by criminals because he hated them.

"When we heard that irrational statement, we decided to walk away from the meeting. Since then, we have become the target of Mashiane's raids on our shops and our lives are difficult. We are accused of arrogance by walking away from the meeting," Walsame said.

Mashiane said he could not remember making such a statement. "What meeting was that? I will need to go back to my records. I attend so many meetings I cannot recall anything off the top of my head like that."

He wanted to know why the people making the allegations against him had not complained to the police. "The thing that you should know is that I am not xenophobic by nature," he said. "I can't utter such nonsense."

Walsame said his shops sold soft drinks, hair extensions, cigarettes, canned foods and other groceries.

"We run our businesses 24/7 because it is the only thing we have to support our families. Here I have a wife and a child. Back at home, my parents and siblings depend on me because there is no work and no government there [Somalia]," said Walsame.

Abshir Osman, another Somali shopkeeper, said his shop had been demolished. He said it had contained stock worth about R300000.

"I asked Robert [Mashiane] and his men what wrong have I done, but they carried on with the demolition and told me this is not Somalia. People at the time were helping themselves to my stock that was thrown in all directions," he said.

The shopkeepers rented space on RDP stands to put up their shops. The homeowners would not comment.

"I don't want to talk about this thing. Even some people are very angry at us. They say we are hosting Indians," said a man who owns an RDP stand.

Homeowners who had rented out space in their yards to Somali shopkeepers said their power had been cut and they had to pay R6000 to be reconnected.

"I am no longer stocking perishable stock like meat because they are damaged," said Osman.

"I am losing a lot of money because people are no longer buying things like cold drinks because the fridges are not working. I have bought a small generator, but things are no longer the same."

Walsame said shopkeepers paid between R1200 and R2500 to RDP homeowners and contributed to their power bills.

He said some shops had paid R1200 to have electricity connected to the containers, but within days the municipality had confiscated the connection box and told them the connections were illegal.

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