From World Bulletin

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress Party (ANC) announced that it would restrict small foreign-owned businesses from being opened in the country’s townships and rural areas so as to give an opportunity to South Africans.

“If you go to Soweto corner shops have been taken over by foreigners. We must do something about it,” ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe told a campaign rally in Eldorado Park South of Johannesburg.

“If you see all the malls here, who is in those malls? Who owns shops there? Why can’t our people pull their resources together and own business opportunities in their back yards,” he told a cheering crowd.

Most small to medium size businesses in South Africa numbering in hundreds of thousands are owned by foreigners from African countries, Asia and a few from the Middle East.

Most of these traders came to South Africa shortly after it attained democracy in 1994.

The ANC, which has ruled the country since, adopted a liberal immigration and economic policy which allowed many foreigners to settle and start businesses without bottlenecks.

However, local South African businesspeople have often accused the foreign nationals of taking their business opportunities.

Read more at World Bulletin