Immigrant traders in the Kwathema township of Springs, east of Johannesburg, are locking up their shops and leaving. The reason is direct: vigilante groups in the area have issued a deadline telling foreign nationals they must be gone by 30 June, or face consequences.
The threats have been enough to push traders out before that date even arrives. Shops that were open for business are now closed, and the people who ran them are gone, or preparing to go. No formal charges, no legal process. Just a deadline and the fear of what follows it.
Kwathema is part of the Springs area on the East Rand, a region that has seen tension between local communities and immigrant-owned businesses before. The pattern here is familiar across parts of South Africa, where foreign nationals, many of them running small informal or semi-formal shops, find themselves targeted during periods of economic frustration.
What happens to those shops, and to the communities that relied on them for everyday goods, remains an open question as June 30 approaches.
Originally published by AllAfrica · info@groundup.org.za (GroundUp).