Breaking surveillance cameras, shooting with rubber bullets, “confiscating” money and destroying merchandise is the modus operandi of the police and security companies during raids in the Johannesburg CBD, say business owners who had to repair their shops after a raid on 8 September. Most are migrants from the rest of Africa and Asia.  

The chairperson of the United Ethiopian Community Association in South Africa, John Habib, said even when shop owners are calm, the police use force. He said they are never shown a warrant or a search and seizure order during frequent raids.  

“Normally, police want to confiscate counterfeit goods, but first they break surveillance cameras, go straight to the tills … and they take the money. You don’t have any right to ask what they are doing or why they are here,” said Habib. 

“They shoot with rubber bullets to control the crowd, then block access and take things such as suits. A woman who sells food and drinks in a small shop had her shop destroyed. They just pulled the whole fridge down and broke all the cooldrinks she sells. We don’t know what the purpose is of destroying a small shop of a poor person selling takeaways,” added Habib. 

For several years, law enforcement authorities have carried out raids in the city to root out undocumented migrants, traders without permits and counterfeit goods. Tactical teams supported by the SAPS, metro police and other security detail cordon off blocks at a time. The officers present are meant to have search and seizure orders. The process should include an inventory of confiscated goods with copies to be left with traders so they can recover their stock once they prove the goods are not counterfeit. 

But, according to the migrants Daily Maverick spoke to, no procedure is followed, police use force, rampage through their shops and sometimes the only thing they take is money.  

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According to a study funded by Johannesburg Inner City Partnership in 2017, R10-billion is spent each year in this part of the city at an estimated 3,000 shops. Each shop employs, on average, three people. One out of three is South African.  

Habib said the police “always just fight. If you say anything, they tell you that ‘We will annihilate you. We will kill you.’” 

In late August, goods worth R8-million were seized in large-scale raids in the Johannesburg CBD. Police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said the raids were part of the ongoing Operation Okae Molao.

However, migrants claim that confiscated goods “are taken from one block and resold two blocks down to other traders”. 

Ali Duwa from Light of Hope for Africa, a Malawian migrants’ organisation, says in his interactions with the police, he gauged they are never about upholding the law but about extorting money from vulnerable people. 

“The police can come and say, ‘Don’t trade here, you don’t have a permit or a permit for being in the country.’ If you have it on you and bring out the papers, sometimes they don’t even look at them because that’s not what they are looking for — they are hoping for money. So, even if you are on the right side of the law, they will intimidate you and ask for ‘cooldrink’.”  

A Bangladeshi immigrant said police regularly extort breakfast, lunch and supper money from traders. Like Duwa, he said having documents doesn’t spare you from harassment. 

“For example, if you show your documents, you will be asked questions like how come you got a 12-month extension and not six months, then you have to pay a fine for that. If you have lots of money in the till, they ask where you got it and you pay a fine for that. 

“If you have a life partner visa, a policeman will ask you to call your South African girlfriend and he … asks what colour panty and bra she is wearing, then he will ask you [to prove she is your girlfriend].” 

Many of the people Daily Maverick spoke to have become apathetic to the conduct of the police.  

“This is the way it is. We are foreigners here, you must just give them whatever they want when they come.”

Daily Maverick reached out to SAPS 48 hours ago for comment – we still await it. DM/MC