Local spaza shop owners need regulatory protection against foreigners
Battle for control of township market expected to intensify
At the height of the xenophobic attacks in Gauteng in September last year I visited a close friend in Thokoza township who has lived in the area for nearly two decades. The visit gave me unique insight into what appears to be a never-ending resentment of foreign nationals.
The conflict was triggered by the murder of a taxi driver in Pretoria by an alleged Nigerian drug dealer and quickly spread to the Johannesburg CBD, where foreign traders had a few weeks earlier attacked police cracking down on illegal goods. Then the attacks snowballed to townships across Gauteng, with locals claiming they were avenging the murder...
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