Traders want an end police ‘discrimination’

Foreign traders from Limpopo turned to the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, claiming that they were being targeted and discriminated against by the police and the local authorities who were forcing them to close their businesses.

In the application by the Somali Association of South Africa, the Ethiopian Community of South Africa and others, against the Limpopo Department of Economic Development and the police, these foreigners, with the assistance of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), claimed it was unlawful practice to prevent refugees and asylum seekers from trading and operating businesses in Limpopo.

They stated that their livelihoods were being affected by the authorities clamping down on them. They claimed that the Limpopo Department of Economic Development was refusing to accept applications for trading licences and that a crackdown on illegal businesses, known as “Operation Hardstick” was being used by the police to unfairly target refugees and asylum seekers with valid trading permits.

They are asking for an order forcing the department to allow them to apply for the permits required to operate their businesses and to consider these applications within a reasonable time. They are also asking that the department be ordered not to refuse their applications on the grounds that they are refugees or asylum seekers.

The group asked Judge Natvarlal Ranchod to interdict the authorities from closing down their shops in the cases where they already had valid trading permits. The court was told that asylum seekers and refugees had a right to support themselves by operating businesses in South Africa, but they were being prevented from doing so.

Mohamed Hirsi said in a statement before court that officials were refusing to consider their applications for a trading licence. The police in turn raided their businesses and confiscated their stock. According to Hirsi, the police have embarked on Operation Hardstick to shut down all businesses in Limpopo operating without the required business permits. They are targeting refugees and asylum seekers, with the shops of more than 60 foreigners being closed over the past few months, he said.

“The traders were never advised that they needed to obtain a business permit to operate a spaza shop,” he said.

They, however, went to the government departments to obtain the necessary permits, only to be told that only citizens with IDs could apply and that foreigners couldn’t operate businesses.

He said the police arrived unannounced at the shops, demanding to see the licences. They then subsequently closed the shops and seized the stock.

The police, in defending the application, strongly denied that Operation Hardstick was aimed at targeting foreigners and said it had been implemented with the sole purpose of cracking down on illegal businesses and eradicating crime.

Legal arguments were due to proceed on Wednesday.