Durban shops shut as foreign traders brace for looming national shutdown deadline.
Foreign nationals in Durban have told IOL they will be closing their shops on Tuesday as the so-called 'deadline' issued by an anti-immigrant group for undocumented foreigners to leave the country takes effect.
Many traders said they are shutting down as a precaution amid fears of possible unrest linked to planned protests, describing a tense and uncertain atmosphere that has already begun to disrupt daily business and livelihoods across the city.
"We won't dare open the shop tomorrow. They could come in here and attack us. We don't know what is going to happen because police will be out, but it would be safer to just close," a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo who works at a shop in Glenwood
Thirty-five-year-old Ethiopian shop owner Emanuel Misganu said he and other traders in his area had agreed to shut down as a precaution, after discussions within their local business network. “We will not be opening. They announced that it is a big national thing, so we decided to close,” he said.
