By-law failure hits migrants

Clashes between the police and foreigners in Cape Town yesterday put the spotlight back on South Africa’s ability to cope with illegal immigrants.

During a parliamentary briefing after the recent attacks and looting of shops owned by foreigners which led to 12 deaths, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) said the municipalities did not have up to date by-laws to deal with illegal immigrants.

Salga added that the perception that foreign migrants were “stealing” jobs from South Africans was not true.

“The evidence showed that foreign businesses also created jobs for South Africans through direct hire. When a comparison was undertaken between South African-owned and foreign-owned small, medium and micro enterprises in Tshwane and Johannesburg, it was found that only 5% of the South African businesses employed only non-South Africans, and 30% employed both.”

Of the foreign migrant businesses, Salga said 12% employed only South Africans, whereas nearly half employed both South Africans and non-South Africans.

Salga president Thembi Nkadimeng said the research revealed that the residents who argued that foreigners should hand over their stalls to South Africans had rented out their garages or erected structures on their properties so that foreigners could operate there and pay them.

Nkadimeng said it was these contradictions that local government had to regulate.

“The matter is not cut and dried. Certain municipalities have responded by regulating that the person operating a business within a property, such as in the case of a spaza shop, must be the owner of that property.

“This favours locals where they own the property on the one hand but also limits potential South Africans from participating in the economy on the other.

“Also the property owner is limited to operating the business and cannot allocate the capital elsewhere.”

At the parliamentary briefing the City of Ekurhuleni said its population had grown to 3.379 million as a result of migration, which reinforced existing inequalities.

The City of Joburg said it was facing a housing backlog of 300 000 units, compounding serious challenges in the provision of basic services and temporary emergency accommodation.

These contradictions have to be regulated. This matter is not cut and dried.

Thembi Nkadimeng Salga president