GROUNDUP: Eastern Cape immigrant shop owners say they pay for protection from ‘xenophobia’ By GroundUp GroundUp_News
Immigrants who own shops in the Eastern Cape town of Cofimvaba say the South African National Civic Organisation , together with the Intsika Yethu Business Forum, have been forcing them to pay if they want their shops to be “protected” against xenophobic attacks.
Sanco acting chairperson of the Ntsika Yethu Sub-region Dyantyi Xolani Ntila said they had testimonials from workers from various shops that complained of abuses by immigrant shop owners.Our sisters are being paid below the minimum wage that has been passed by our government. Their working conditions show that we are now back to slavery,’’ Ntila toldHe said he had personally witnessed mistreatment.
At a meeting at the municipal offices with Sanco and Intsika Yethu Business Forum officials, Ratan said he was told he has to pay R100 a month.They made it very clear that I have no choice in the matter. They said joining the business forum will guarantee me protection from xenophobic attacks. What I do not know is where are these attacks they were referring to? Because we were never threatened here and we are not even aware that there are people who want to attack us,” said Ratan.
Ntila said there were allegations that workers had money deducted from their wages when they went to the doctor. He said a female employee had said she was forced to have sex with her boss. When asked for more details, Ntila said she was no longer working and he could not provide details about this incident. He saidThe shop owners GroundUp interviewed said they were unaware of these allegations.
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