Threats against Somali businesses must not be tolerated

Tariro Washinyira’s story includes documentary evidence of the xenophobic pressure on Somali businesses. These documents, some of which are also signed by apparent leaders of the Somali community, are frightening. They commit the Somali community to limit their business activities in Khayelitsha. These agreements cannot be legal or constitutional. Moreover two of them were concluded following the xenophobic violence of 2008, which suggests that there was more than a little coercive pressure for Somali leaders to sign it. The latest document, from March 2012, contains a veiled threat of violence: “failure to” limit Somali-owned businesses, “will breed anarchy in our community.” In Orwellian language we are told, “These agreements have helped to foster peaceful coexistence between the local and foreign national business [sic] in the townships since 2008.”

Xenophobia doesn’t spring from nowhere. Undoubtedly spaza shops in the townships are under pressure. There is acute competition, and where resources are very limited, hatred and violence do arise. But it cannot be tolerated. No South African has the right to force the Somali community to limit legal business activity and no Somali community leader has the right or power to commit to restricting what his countrymen do.

One of the allegations of the South African business owners we spoke to claimed that the Somali businesses drop their prices to drive local shops out of businesses, then push their prices back up. This is implausible. Somali-owned shops compete with each other as well as South African owned shops. But if there truly is price collusion, then there are legal non-violent ways to deal with it. Ironically it is the Zanokhanyo Business Association (ZBA), which represents the South African business owners, that is calling for prices to be fixed, as Washinyira’s article makes clear.

There seems to be general agreement that Somali-owned shops have brought prices down in the townships. While this might put pressure on locally-owned spaza shops, it also benefits township consumers. Moreover it is possible that it is not merely competition from foreign-owned shops that is driving local spaza shops out of business, but also competition from the new supermarkets that are springing up in the townships. Big supermarkets pushing small retailers out of the market is a worldwide phenomenon and it is probably unstoppable.

Where are the police in all of this? Somali shops continue to be the targets of violence. The culprits provoking this do not even hide. The ZBA must be investigated and the police must warn its members firmly that if they intimidate foreign nationals they will be arrested. Judging by the language of the agreements the ZBA expects the police to support their intimidation; that shows a scary misunderstanding of the law.

If you replace every occurrence of the word Somali with “Jew” and the word Khayelitsha with “Berlin” in our lead article today, it seems to describe a situation eerily reminiscent of the most horrific events of the 20th century. To prevent the situation from getting worse it is urgent that representatives of all three tiers of government as well as NGOs start mediating the situation.