Angry residents of KwaMashu township in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal have flipped the script, saying the 21 days the government gave them to register their spaza shops is the same period within which foreign nationals must leave the country.

The residents said this earlier on Thursday, November 21, during a march across the township against foreign nationals. 

Conducted under the watchful eyes of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Durban metro police, the group of protestors carried placards reading “Enough is enough with foreign nationals” and “Spaza shops for South Aricans.”

The march was joined by the leadership of ActionSA and African People’s First in the province. Both political parties have been pleading with eThekwini municipality to tighten the law regarding the industry and allow only South Africans to operate.

One of the organisers of the march, Sbonginkosi Mkhize of INK Investment Stokvel, said they have noted that while they want the foreign nationals out, a small group of South Africans is protecting them and even escorting them when going out to stock goods for their spaza shops.

“This is a small group that is doing this and we are trying to gather more information about and why they are doing this,” Mkhize told the African Times on the sidelines of the march. 

Regarding the 21 days ultimatum, he said they want President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government to clean the country first before they could start registering spaza shops.

‘These are internal issues that we should discuss after the foreign nationals are gone, this is our country,” he told the marchers.

Addressing the marchers, Zwakele Mncwnago, the KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of ActionSA, said they would not stop calling for the spaza shop industry to be completely reserved for South Africans.

“We will do so even if we are being called xenophobic. If putting South Africans first and caring for them is being xenophobic, that’s fine, we will not change our stance,” Mncwango said.