When the community of KwaThema, in Ekurhuleni, wanted the residents of Tsakane to be in solidarity with them when they were chasing away foreign national with shops in their township, they said they did not have a problem with the shop owners in their area as they made their lives easy. But this has suddenly changed as residents now want all foreign nationals owning tuck shops in their area gone.
This comes after the death of a six-year-old Refilwe Usman yesterday after she allegedly ate biscuits bought from a foreign owned spaza shop. It's alleged that Refilwe fell sick immediately after consuming the biscuits and vomited at school. Her parents were called to the Mandlethu Primary School in Tsakane where they found their child weak with no sign of life.
She died at the school as the parents waited for paramedics. Her mother was too distraught to speak to ZiMoja. Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane confirmed the incident and shared how devastated his department was by the incident. "According to the information at our disposal the parents confirmed that the child had consumed biscuits which were bought form a local spaza shop owned by a foreign national. Police are investigating circumstances surrounding the incident. Our psychological social support unit will be deployed today to provide trauma support and counselling to all affected individuals.
We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate incident. We plead with parents to be vigilant concerning the eligible goods that their children consume. We call upon enforcement agencies and municipalities to be more strident on compliance matters related to spaza shops products. Indeed, we wish to extend our sincerest condolences to the family and the school," Chiloane said.
The incident prompted the community to seek help from KwaThema to chase out all foreign nationals who own spaza shops in the area. According to a circulating recorded clip from the angry members of the community, the residents visited the shop with the local cops but the owner managed to escape unscathed after he ran for his life. This led to more tense standoff between the residents and the foreign national who own spaza shops.
Residents went on to loot the said spaza shop and later burnt it down. "We thought they were here to helps us and make our lives easy, so we won't have to go to the mall to buy bread or airtime, but they are killing our children. We want them out, this is our stance and we are not backing down; Duduza and KwaThema communities managed to chase them out of their townships, so can we," a community member said. When we began chasing out foreign nationals who owns spaza shops in KwaThema, the people from Tsakane told us to leave them alone. They told us that they didn't want to go to the mall to buy airtime and bread. They told us that we must never touch them but here we are now. They are now asking us to help get rid of them," said angry residents from KwaThema and Tsakane. ZiMoja managed to get access to the community WhatsApp where the community was discussing ways to get rid of foreign nationals for good. Another resident said: " They must go and the spaza must be returned to our people like in the old days,"
Last week, KwaThema residents hired a crane to remove all mobile foreign-owned spaza shops in their township. During a stand-off with the spaza owners, its alleged that a foreign spaza-owner shot dead the crane driver. The police are currently in the area monitoring the situation.
