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A bakkie belonging to one of the foreign shop owners has been torched in Bophelong township in the Vaal. Photo by Tumelo Mofokeng

SHOPS belonging to foreign nationals are still shut down as tensions rise in Bophelong in the Vaal.

Residents retaliated as one of the community leaders was badly injured allegedly by a shop owner on Sunday, 6 November, as they accused him of influencing landlords to allegedly kick them out.

Thabiso Maphike, one of the community leaders, told Daily Sun that all spaza shops in Bophelong have been closed and won’t be operational now or in the future.

“On Sunday, 6 November, the community burnt a bakkie as well as food in all the shops, but police came in numbers to calm the situation down,” said Maphike.

“We are reclaiming our tuck shops back from these people. We don’t want them anymore in our township, so we take back what’s rightfully ours as we revive the township economy,” he said.

Maphike said foreign spaza shop owners don’t employ any of the community members and don’t contribute to the development of the kasi.

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“Be it the removal of garbage, fixing of potholes, contribution to indigent families, and child-headed families, but some of them sell expired and fake products to young people,” Maphike said.

According to Maphike, with the help of the police, the immigration department, environmental health and the municipal by-law unit, several shops were checked, and it was found that they did not comply. 

One of the landlords told Daily Sun that the rent money she received helped her family to survive.

She said over the years she managed to take her kids to school and bought them clothes with the money received from these shop owners.

Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo said the police can confirm the community leader’s attack and that cases of assault and malicious damage to property have been opened at the Vanderbijlpark for investigation. He said no arrests have been made yet.