Nelson Mandela Bay mayor targets immigrant-owned spaza shops

The newly elected mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Babalwa Lobishe, ordered the closure of eight immigrant-owned shops on Monday afternoon, 12 November, in an operation conducted jointly by health and home affairs officials, the SAPS, metro police and the City’s economic development and electricity directorates.

On Tuesday, mayoral committee member for health Tshonono Buyeye led a similar “food safety spaza blitz” in North End, Gqeberha. Two more immigrants were detained for being undocumented.

Lobishe was due to lead a spaza shop clampdown on Wednesday in New Brighton, Gqeberha.

The mayor claimed the shops were operating illegally and that their owners lacked proper documentation. “They must wait for us behind bars,” she said.

But the shop owners dispute the allegations.

“We are not criminals. We are in the process of obtaining proper documentation, and some of us are already legally in South Africa,” said Abul Ali, who runs a spaza shop in KwaNobuhle, Kariega.

“These are politically motivated actions against us. There are many more pressing issues facing this city,” Ali said.

The crackdown is being partly justified by unsubstantiated claims seeking to exclusively link immigrant-owned shops to the tragic deaths of children that have occurred in other parts of the country. Tests have shown that some of these deaths have been caused by the illegal use of pesticide Terbufos.

“We will never allow children to die from eating fake sweets in Nelson Mandela Bay,” the mayor said.

Her statements echo anti-immigrant sentiments. She warned property owners against renting to immigrants and promoted what she called “opportunities for South Africans” to take over these businesses.

“We are heeding a call for South Africans to prepare themselves as the municipality is willing to support them run shops by themselves. The government has packages for individuals wanting to do businesses. Don’t allow foreign nationals to run businesses in your country illegally,” she said.

In a statement, the municipality said it had uncovered several violations, including the illegal sale of paraffin and diesel, unauthorised electricity connections and illegal dumping. Additionally, some panel beating businesses were found employing individuals without valid passports.

Chris Mapingure, chair of the Zimbabwe Migrants Support Network, said: “This comes as a very huge disappointment to us foreign nationals considering the fact that there is a court judgment made in the Western Cape on 13 September 2024 stopping Home Affairs and police from arresting foreign nationals [who have an] intention to apply for asylum.” DM

First published by GroundUp.

GroundUp experimented with AI Claude 3.5 Sonnet in the editing of this article.