SOWETAN SAYS | Deal harshly with Dudula thuggery

A group of immigrant spaza shop owners who heeded a call by President Cyril Ramaphosa to register their businesses within 21 days were met with hostility and intimidation in Soweto on Monday. The ugly scenes outside the Jabulani Civic Centre, where Somali and Pakistani shop owners were chased away and their cars kicked by a mob of anti-migrant group, Operation Dudula, played out in front of the police.

We reported that the Dudula mob had taken over access control to the venue, scrutinising vehicles' occupants and demanding identity documents before allowing people to enter the centre. Not only were this group’s actions despicable —  as they openly discriminated against those who are not South Africans — but their attempts to block shop owners from registering were unlawful and must be condemned.

Operation Dudula has consistently acted against the spirit of our constitution in its efforts to appeal for popularity with anti-immigrant rhetoric, especially on the ownership of spaza shops in townships. Yet, despite their obvious and known stance, the police stood by as they continued to take charge of the Jabulani centre deciding who should gain access.

The fact that foreign spaza shop owners voluntarily went to the centre to register their businesses, suggests they are law-abiding and in this country legally. To deny them access to the very place where the president encouraged all who operate such business in SA seek to be regularised using threats and violence, is an act of thuggery.

We expect our police to do the right thing by protecting those who subject themselves to the rule of law and deal harshly with lawbreakers like Dudula. The process to register spaza shops and small businesses in townships is an important one and government intervention in a crisis of deaths from food-borne illnesses.

The government, therefore, has a duty to protect the integrity of this process to ensure it is not hijacked by groups pushing the anti-immigrant narrative. It is inconceivable that government departments behind this drive to register shop owners could not have anticipated the anarchy that played out in Soweto, and if they did, failed to nip the problem in the bud.

SowetanLIVE