Harassment linked to South Africa’s March and March anti-migrant movement has driven dozens of documented traders from a once-thriving market in Bellville, Cape Town, leaving stalls vacant even though the traders hold valid permits. The campaign has demanded that all undocumented migrants leave the country by June 30 and continues to disrupt economic activity.
The wider fallout has hit Somali- and Ethiopian-owned spaza shops and cross-border trading centres such as Johannesburg’s Jeppe Street, where businesses have been looted, torched or forced to close. Analysts say the unrest puts roughly three million jobs and 5% of GDP at risk. With the movement linked to November’s local elections, they warn that it is compounding economic losses and putting further strain on South Africa’s trade relations across the continent.
