Manganye said there were 100 informal settlements in the city. “We have 5 000 street traders and 3 500 spaza shops in largely township areas. The concentration of these businesses is in the townships‚ unemployment is high‚ which creates competition.”
“More than 1 200 shops in Soweto are not regulated by bylaws‚” a Somali Community Board leader submitted to the public inquiry.
Amir Sheikh said: “It is important to us…We signed a pledge not to disseminate or sell any counterfeit product in our stores.
“We asked the government that we are ready to translate the bylaws into languages that our members can understand. In all the municipalities that we have approached we did not get any assistance. Most of the time they said there is no budget‚” said Sheikh.
He said the local government did not include them in township revitalisation programmes.
“We want to co-exist with local South Africans but all we hear from our leaders is: ‘share our secrets.’ If there is no coexistence between us and community‚ what secrets are we going to share?
“We knew for three months that the attack was coming‚ but we did not know when it will take place” Sheikh added.

He said they purchased products from reputable companies‚ “These manufacturers are not penalised when they alter expiry dates and give us goods that are expired‚ hence making us be at loggerheads with the community. We do not see reason to come all the way from Somalia to South Africa only to break the law.”
Brian Leroni from Massmart‚ from which some of the goods sold at spaza shops are sourced‚ said: “It's not in our interests to sell expired or fake goods. We have a desire for perfection and sell to all our customers irrespective of nationality and we have strict policy.
“We have a rigorous regime and have stock rotation; merchandisers take our stock that is most likely to expire. It is put in front and new stock is placed at the back or bottom. We remove stock that's about to expire‚”

Source: Sowetan Live