ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba called for spaza shops to be reserved for South Africans and called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to take action.
“Let the president not entertain criminality, let the president listen to the people of Soweto, Katlegong, Hammanskraal, and so forth, instead of listening to criminals,” Mashaba said.
Mashaba urged Ramaphosa to swiftly arrest those selling contaminated and toxic foods and labelled foreign nationals operating spaza shops as ‘criminals’.
He said hard working business people would improve their standards.
“Arrest them and make sure that they get the harshest punishment — any government can unleash on criminals,” he said.
He added that “clever foreigners” must be deported back to their countries, arguing that if they are hard working business people, they should improve their standards.
“Send them to their countries, if they are telling themselves that they are hard working, clever business people, let them go fix their own countries,” Mashaba said.
Mashaba, who has been vocal about the deportation of undocumented foreigners, was speaking outside the City of Johannesburg’s Jabulani Centre's offices, on Wednesday, in Soweto.
He was joined by the party’s Members of Parliament, its supporters, and residents where they marched to deliver a memorandum of demands to officials following the 21-day spaza shop registration, announced by Ramaphosa.
The march came in the wake of a tragic incident in Naledi in Soweto, where six children died after eating snacks bought from a local spaza shop believed to be owned by undocumented foreigners.
The party voiced concern about the deaths of more than 23 children after eating toxic snacks bought from spaza shops.
ActionSA has recently launched a campaign called #Spaza4Locals, which is the brainchild of the party’s MP Lerato Ngobeni, and demands that spaza shops across the country should to be operated by South Africans, not foreign nationals.
Furious community members and members of civic group Operation Dudula, recently flooded to the centre, blocking foreigner nationals from registering their businesses.
They too, demanded spaza shops to be owned by South African citizens.
Speaking outside the centre, Mashaba expressed concern about illegal foreign-owned tuck shops and called on Ramaphosa to take action.
Ngobeni said that they believed that township economy should be reserved for South Africans.
“That's the call, and a fight we will fight for irrespective of how long it takes us.”
She added that they were concerned about the number of children who died after eating contaminated snacks bought from the spaza shops.
“Children are dying every day. Every day on the headlines, it's only so and so children have passed away. We are saying as ActionSA in particular, we are not going to allow that,” Ngobeni said.
Spaza shop owners in Naledi, Soweto have since voiced frustration with Ramaphosa’s 21-day deadline for registering their tuck shops, and demanded an extension of four months, arguing that it is insufficient.
One of those was Tshidi Seloko who expressed that Ramaphosa’s deadline was unrealistic for many shop owners.
“He was supposed to give us four months, not 21 days. Many shop owners don’t have money to travel to the municipal office to register as they rely on the money they made after selling their products,” Seloko told IOL News last month.
Seloko called on Ramaphosa to extend the registration period to be able to accommodate those who are facing financial hardships.
IOL Politics