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A battle for the township tuck shop is under way, but who will win? Two provincial governments, Gauteng and the Free State, want to return local citizens to greater numbers of township businesses, and foreign owners are keen to share their knowledge to stop violent attacks. We found mixed feelings on the ground.
“You would realise that the tuck shops, for instance, have been leased to foreign nationals. So one of the things we want to attack, working with the traditional leaders, is that people must get back their shops,” said North West premier Supra Mahumapelo when he opened the provincial legislature recently.
He welcomed the R200 million set aside by government as surety towards establishing “massive warehouses ... to reignite small enterprises such as tuck shops”.
This will be done in partnership with the independent, not-for-profit black business support body Nafcoc.
“With Nafcoc’s capacity and national footprint, we will ensure that every tuck shop provides a basket of goods required by a typical South African household which I call the poverty-eradication bowl,” said Mahumapelo’s spokesperson, Brian Setswambung.
And as part of Gauteng’s drive to revitalise its township economy, MEC for economic development Lebogang Maile has embarked on a campaign to empower and help sustain small businesses, including tuck shops.
Maile said his department was bringing in private sector “giants” to forge partnerships with small business owners, adding that it was time for local business to “share ideas and organise themselves – and buy in groups – so they can get better prices”.
This is in direct response to a known business plan used by foreign traders, who club together to buy their stock items in bulk for guaranteed discounts.
There were also initiatives for foreign nationals to organise in groups and work together with local business owners.
But South African tuck shop owners in Gauteng and the North West, who spoke to City Press, said it would take more than “financial grants and empowerment initiatives” to make things right.
They called on the state to introduce strict regulations requiring small business operators to have permits for spaza shops. This, to cut mushrooming foreign-owned establishments, which they said were bullying locals out of business.
Perceptions that foreigners were intentionally pushing locals out of business and striving for dominance came to a head in 2008, with a spate of xenophobic attacks directed at foreign-owned small businesses. It has continued since, with community protests nearly always matched with attacks on foreign-owned shops.
Government has responded with widespread campaigns decrying xenophobic violence, but this has failed to quell resentment.
Mahumapelo has been criticised for his statements. “He never said foreigners will be barred from doing business in the province. He is on record for emphasising the need to empower local businesses ... to grow the economy,” said spokesperson Setswambung.
The Johannesburg-based Somali Community Board’s secretary-general, Abdirizak Osman, said there were hostilities between local and foreign businesses, and called for urgent intervention. They were “establishing working relationships” with their South African counterparts. Somalis run many township economies.
“We need to avoid the recurrence of xenophobic attacks. I believe the integration of foreigners into local communities will assist a great deal,” Osman said.
“Foreign businesspeople have undertaken to work together with locals and form groups to use their buying power to negotiate better prices and discounts.”
Township Business Development SA chair Abbas Mkhize said the body was formed “out of xenophobia realities that took place last year, when foreigners were kicked out of Soweto and their shops looted”.
“Our aim is to integrate Somali, Ethiopian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani businesspeople into our local communities and address the growing intolerance, seen in service-delivery protests, where foreign-owned businesses are targeted to send a message to government,” he said.
“We are looking at opening doors for partnerships, buying together and changing the attitude of locals towards foreigners,” he said.
But locals who spoke to City Press showed little interest in working with foreign traders.
Nati Dlodlo – a tuck shop owner in Orlando East for more than 10 years
“We welcome government interventions and assistance, but so much damage has been done to local traders, most of whom have given up on setting up a business. Why not level the playing field first with regulations that will allow for fair trading, before splashing money on what can be countered by foreign nationals who want to dominate?
“They [foreigners] must just pack up and go. Their only intention has always been to suffocate and bully us out of business through their greedy tactics when they found us living in harmony and sharing the stakes.
“How can government expect us to work with them after they have allowed them to run businesses without any regulations?
“They have hurt many of our people intentionally, and the hatred is too deep now because of the wounds sustained when they came in and pushed locals out of business.
“Then you get our government saying we must learn how to run a business from our foreign counterparts, as if we’re stupid.
“They say these things, not knowing that some spaza shops are better managed than some government departments.
“I do not condone violence towards foreigners. The best thing government can do is to introduce regulations that will flatten the ground for fair trading.
“We are ready for competition, but not when people can open six shops all around us with the aim of putting us down.
“I am now left relying on vetkoek because that is the one thing they are failing to satisfy the township communities with. With regard to other items, they are dominating.”
Farook Farook – a Somali national operating a tuck shop down the road from Nati Dlodlo’s spaza shop in Orlando East
“We don’t want any more violence and victimisation of foreigners. If it means all this will stop, I don’t mind coming together with local people to work on business-related matters. But right now we live behind burglar bars, not knowing when we will be attacked next. I am more than willing to share ideas and work with my local African brothers. We need to live in peace.”
Mahomed Osman – Somali tuck shop owner in Freedom Park, outside Rustenburg
“My shop has been looted several times during protests that had nothing to do with businesses. I desperately want to be part of the local community and am currently playing for a local football team, but I still get targeted during any violent action.
“If locals are ready to work with us, then why not? We can learn business operations from each other.”
