Local shop owners in Soweto want foreign shop owners to leave and they sat down in a meeting today and asked the government to back them in a resolution after
some foreign shops were looted and set alight, SABC reports.

Lindiwe Zulu, the small business enterprises minister, tried to talk the locals out of it.

“The bottom line is that they are here. They live among us,” she said at the meeting. “The constitution protects them. The bill of rights protects them.”

But a recommendation stood — foreign nationals must be barred from trading in Soweto.

The Black Business Council called on locals to defend their territory. Ndaba Ntsele is president of the all-powerful black lobby group, according to MoneyWeb. Ntsele said local Soweto business owners can’t compete with “mafia-style businesses,” according to the SABC video.

“Certain things are done underground,” Ntsele told SABC, describing what local Sowetans are up against when competing with foreign-owned businesses. “They buy in bulk.”

Soweto-born businessman Ntsele was voted Ernst & Young World Best Entrepreneur of the year in 2007. He took over leadership of the Black Business Council from billionaire mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, according to MoneyWeb.

Foreign nationals were barred from the meeting.

“How can we live?” asked Ali Hussein, a foreign businessman. “(We’ve been here a) long time… We love South Africa. We want to stay here with the local people. Please give us a chance to do proper business.”