Foreigners takeover myth dispelled

ASOUTH African study has dispelled the myth that foreigners have “taken over” informal township economies through the establishment of spaza shops that sell cheap goods.

The study, which appeared in the latest African Human Mobility Review, asserts that the myth is rather used to motivate and justify xenophobic attitudes towards foreigners.

The study surveyed 1 050 spaza shopkeepers across the country and found that South African spaza traders were as vulnerable to violent crime as foreigners.

The shopkeepers surveyed were from South Africa, other African countries, and South Asia.

The researchers noted that their results provided “near absolute levels of confidence in the claims”.

They found that the notion that foreign-owned spaza shops “out-compete” South African ones were “largely inaccurate”, with some found to be more expensive than South African-owned spaza shops.

“The real difference on average prices is not large,” the study said.

Furthermore, South African spaza shop owners were placed “right in the middle” when it came to experiences of crime, stating they were also victimised when peddling cheaper goods.

The findings, the study said, contradicted the “popular discourse”, which often suggested foreigners were making serious inroads into township economies, and that foreigners were exclusively vulnerable to violence because of economic competition.

Dr Sagie Narsiah, of UKZN’s sociology department, said locals “scapegoat” foreigners, holding them responsible for challenges they faced.

“There is a triple threat of poverty, unemployment and inequality, and so you have a working class that see foreign nationals as being successful, (and) taking away jobs,” he said.

This masked the root causes of xenophobic tension, which related to economic inequalities, he said.

Narsiah fears repeats of the attacks seen in 2008 and last year should these underlying economic problems not be addressed.

“Unfortunately we haven’t seen the last of xenophobia.” If inroads to tackle the issues were not made, “then it will happen again and foreign nationals will be the scapegoats”.

He added that South Africa should take action in moving towards a more inclusive society.

“We exclude groups of people by labelling them foreigners, and then within the nomenclature of foreigners we target certain groups. From a nation building point of view, we need to be welcoming and open.”

Xenophobic violence that erupted in Durban and Johannesburg last year left seven people dead and displaced thousands of foreigners.

Some took refuge in makeshift camps in Chatsworth and Isipingo.

The premier’s office set up a task team to investigate last year’s attacks.