IT IS a pleasure to live in a country where there are avenues to challenge the law. This is a precious gift, the value of which should never be underestimated. This is why all law-abiding citizens in South Africa should stand up against the bullies who call themselves the Greater Gauteng Business Forum.
This forum believes it is its birth and God-given right to drive Somali and Pakistani businessmen from townships.
Despite last week's Johannesburg high court order and police instruction prohibiting locals from intimidating Pakistani and Somali shop owners, members of this forum are still going around chasing them away and forcing them to close their shops.
The forum's spokesperson, Johannes Ramaropene, should be arrested for threatening and inciting violence.
He had the audacity to order foreign businessmen to leave the Ramaphosa informal settlement without violence, failing which "blood will be spilt".
Who does this man think he is?
They claim that the Pakistani and Somali shopkeepers are in the country illegally, do not pay tax and sell expired goods cheaply.
We would be stupid to believe that this is a forum of law-abiding citizens whose hearts are shattered by foreigners who are breaking our laws.
Their purported mission to rid the townships of illegal traders is nothing but a subterfuge.
If they are so concerned about foreign traders who are breaking the law and evading taxes, they should start in the suburbs and affluent areas of South Africa where this sort of thing has happened and probably still happens.
But typical of black South Africans, our hatred of and violence against foreigners is only aimed at those of a darker hue.
The business forum must just admit that all they want is to obliterate competition and own the trading space in the township.
Just this week I saw a long queue at a Paki-stani-owned spaza shop late at night. The customers were prepared to weather the cold and wait their turn. The forum claims the Pakistanis and Somalis are selling expired goods.
Surely if that is the case, the customers will decide to boycott these shops and punish the businessmen.
The fact that these shops are thriving in the townships is testimony to their being the preferred suppliers.
You cannot use violence and intimidation to force others out of business. Instead of being such wimps, the forum should ask the foreigners for advice on how to make their own businesses successful.
The forum is correct to say people should not be trading illegally and should not evade tax.
I agree that we cannot have a country where people come in illegally, set up businesses and circumvent our tax laws.
If it is true that some Pakistani and Somali shopkeepers are doing this, then the law must prevail.
We have the police, home affairs and SARS and these are the only institutions whose mandate is to address this matter.
The forum is not a law enforcement agency and their anger is misdirected.
We have laws on the treatment of foreign nationals and South African is signatory to international decrees on the treatment of foreigners.
If the forum is not happy with that, then they must challenge the matter within the confines of the law. It is true that our borders are porous and there are those who have taken advantage of this.
They must be found by the police, and sent back home. It cannot be left up to individuals to decide who goes and who stays.
The law of the jungle should have no place in a country whose history is littered with brutality and hatred of others.
That fellow South Africans are hungry and unemployed does not give anyone the right to drive foreigners out.
We should be challenging the government and business to create an enabling environment for all to thrive.
Members of the forum are nothing but a bunch of cowards and thugs.
Source: The Sowetan LIVE
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