Barbara Maregele
LOCAL shopkeepers
in Town Two, Khayelitsha, used spades and pickaxes to tear down the side of a Somali-owned shop in the area yesterday.
Last week, at least 10 Somali-owned shops in the area were forced to close by a group purportedly from the Zanokhanyo Business Association (ZBA), who are seeking to enforce a 2008 agreement that no new foreign-owned shops can open in the township, which is already over-traded.
Canned foods, vegetables and cooldrinks were among the goods looted from the shop.
About 20 people armed with spades, a pickaxe and other tools, confronted three of the Somali shopowners.
At the first two shops, they demanded that they close and the stock removed. But, police with the help of community members, stopped the group .
However, with only one police car present at the third shop, the group used their tools to break down the side of the wood and iron structure in which the two shopowners had locked themselves.
“I couldn’t do anything, I had to just let them do what they wanted. The shop was made so I can support my family and now it’s gone,” said one of the shopowners, Abdul Kadis.
The group looted his shop and two men fled with his cash. Baking powder, vegetables and chip packets were left scattered on the ground.
“I don’t understand why I ran away from war in my own country to come here and look for peace, but we get treated like that. All I wanted was to work for the people and now my things are gone. I had about R10 000 cash and stock worth R30 000. The guys who don’t want us here are jealous and say we take their business.”
Kadis said he planned to re-open the shop as it was his only means of income.
One of the local business owners said: “We are tired of these people coming into our areas and taking business away from us.”
Moments after the group left, some community members helped Kadis rebuild and secure the goods in his shop.
More than 50 women and children began to march through the streets chanting “We want Somalis to stay”.
Community member Sinethemba Klaas, who joined protesters, said they were prepared to boycott the shops of locals if the Somali-owned shops were removed.
“We want the Somali shops to stay because when we need to buy groceries on the book they allow us, but the guys at (the locally owned) Solly’s shop will never do that for us.”
Klaas said residents were “disgusted” at the attacks.