For Jeppestown, read ‘ghost town’ after violent attacks

Their shops looted, cars burnt, businesses closed, distressed South African traders in crime-ridden Jeppestown – among the hardest hit by the raging Gauteng xenophobic violence – are facing a bleak future, with about 95% of them being uninsured.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday in the aftermath of the massive destruction, which also affected the nearby Jules Street businesses in Malvern, Mohsin Suliman, chairperson of the Jeppestown Traders’ Association, described his loss and that of Bangladeshi and Nigerian entrepreneurs as “a decimation”.

“Shops have been cleaned out and some destroyed,” said Suliman, whose association aims to revive the community policing forum in the troubled area east of Johannesburg.

Suliman said those behind the attacks came from the Denver and Jeppe hostels, about 2km away.

He said: “It all started with rumours we were constantly getting from people, saying hostel residents were mobilising to attack us. The looting began last Saturday when a fire broke out near the hostel, affecting a business, which was plundered.

“Sunday saw a build-up of the attacks and an appetite to loot supermarkets in broad daylight and at night. We all found ourselves vulnerable in what we saw as a well-coordinated attack by people who harboured a lot of hatred.

“When we told them we were South Africans with many years of trading in Jeppestown, they told us only the government could resolve things. They told us about Nigerian drug lords in the area who were luring young girls into prostitution. We had nothing to do with that.”

Suliman, who has “lost sleep and turnover since Sunday”, believes they could strike again and has shut his business.

As a trader in Jeppestown for decades, Suliman has seen many xenophobic attacks in the past.

“I have been in this area for years and went through the xenophobic attacks in 2008 and 2015. But this was the most severe.

“If this is not addressed, you will have the same problem in the future, which could result in a war. Because of the attacks, local residents have run out of bread and very soon this will become a ghost town.”

Traders, he said, were desperate for financial support from government to be able to reopen and run their businesses.

“About 95% of businesses here are not insured and no security company would dare send patrols here, despite us paying. We have been left to our own devices, which is very unfair.”

He could not pack up and sell the business because “no one wants to buy here”.

Another trader, Mark Francis, whose textile business employs 30 people, said he feared business closures would lead to 800 employees becoming jobless.

“Because we have adopted a no-work, no-pay policy, employees are concerned,” he said.

– brians@citizen,co.za

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