Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the events of the past few days in Tshwane, Johannesburg and on the N3 highway where foreign-owned businesses and foreign nationals have been attacked.

In the tough economic times, we find ourselves in, where jobs are lost by the dozen in the country, it is quite ironic that one of the most effective sources of job creation, the SMME sector would be disrupted and attacked.

All economic activity is important to grow the economy and as BLSA we believe that the SMME sector is equally important in getting us out of the morass we find ourselves.

“All lawlessness should be condemned and that includes business that operate illegally as well as those that sell counterfeit goods. To this effect we commend the City of Johannesburg for having confiscated counterfeit goods worth millions of rand recently,” said BLSA CEO Busisiwe Mavuso.

“Law enforcement is the job of the police and citizens should not be involved in acts of violence to deal with lawlessness. That’s a contradiction in terms. The police must protect South Africa from all sorts of crime – illegal trading, counterfeit goods as well as violence,” added Mavuso.

Unfortunately and inevitably, if the police are not seen to be effectively dealing with illegal traders, citizens, who themselves are at the mercy of joblessness and poverty, will resort to these despicable acts. BLSA is calling on all South Africans to report to the police all sorts of criminality irrespective of who commits it, this includes crime committed by police who take crime and do not deal with illegal trade, as already shown recently in Johannesburg.