By Doreen Mokgolo
Residents of Duduza, Kwa-Thema and Tsakani, in Ekurhuleni, have taken to the streets to protect foreign-owned spaza shops during the national shutdown.
On Sunday afternoon they met with business owners in the area to map a way to prevent looting and vandalising of businesses.
The group together with the foreign spaza shop owners met again in the early hours of Monday morning to clear the pockets of gatherings and cleaned the roads of the rubble, burning tyres and rocks that were used to block the roads.
Driving through the area, men and women dressed in reflector jackets and armed with two-way phones and sjamboks could be seen guarding the foreign-owned shops.
A taxi was set on fire in Kwa-Thema by the protestors but after community members intervened the crowd dispersed.
Community member Lizwe Matseoyane told Scrolla.Africa that they have learned lessons from the previous service delivery protests and national unrest in 2021 where local businesses and infrastructure were vandalised.
“Some of the businesses have not recovered to date. As it stands, we no longer have traffic lights in the area due to the protest actions that got out of hand.
“We are now forced to drive to neighbouring areas for services. We could not stand back and watch; we benefit from the few spaza shops that remained after the protests and we refuse further damage.”
Another resident, Maria Masango, said that they are not against those who are protesting and will not infringe on their rights to demonstrate.
“We are also expecting them to demonstrate according to the law and not put the safety of others in danger.
“We received information that there was a group of people who were planning to loot businesses for their selfish reasons – thus we could not allow such in our area.”
Kwa-Thema police spokesperson, Sgt Nkululeko Magudulela, confirmed that no one has been arrested but police and EPMD members are out monitoring the situation.
“We are urging those protesting not to take the law into their own hands or vandalise the infrastructure,” he added.
Picture above: Residents guarding foreign owned spaza shops
Image source: Doreen Mokgolo
