MDC SA Welcomes SCA Ruling on the Rights of Asylum Seekers and Refugees to Operate Spaza Shops

The MDC SA acclaims the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in which the court ruled that refugees and asylum seekers have a legal right to operate spaza or tuck shops in South Africa and overturned a previous High Court decision.

The appeal was brought to court by a group of Somali and Ethiopian nationals who had suffered harm when Operation Hardstick was carried out by the police in Limpopo. According to court documents the operation closed about 600 businesses run by foreign nationals whether licenced or not, the police also extorted bribes and did not enforce similar rules for business owned by South Africans. The foreign nationals faced insuperable difficulties in getting the relevant municipal licences and a failure to provide proof of licencing resulted in the immediate closure of their businesses and confiscation of property including fridges, freezers and stock.

This ruling is important because foreigners are often easy targets during times of societal upheaval in communities. There seems to be a general attitude that the operation of spaza shops is a sole privilege reserved for South African citizens. The result is that it somehow seems acceptable for businesses operated by foreign nationals to be looted because they should not be there in the first place.

The decision of the court makes it clear that the problem is not legal it is social, it is in the hearts and minds of the members of the very communities that these businesses serve.

The ruling is an important milestone in the fight against xenophobia and it needs to be distributed as widely as possible to effect the change in mindset that is required.

Foreign nationals, never mind their country of origin have a right to self-employment and as the learned Judge notes there is no restrictive legislation or legal conditions in place that prohibits foreign nationals from being granted spaza or tuck-shop licences.

Let the message be heard loud and clear all over the country.

Foreigner nationals operating spaza shops are not subverting the law, they have a right to apply for licences to operate those businesses, if anything they deserve protection that is guaranteed in terms of the Constitution of South Africa.

Kumbirai T Muchemwa
MDC SA Information and Publicity Secretary
Mobile: +27 73 470 4310
kmuchemwa@mdcsa.co.za