Downtown Johannesburg after a clash between law enforcement officers and street vendors. Downtown Johannesburg after a clash between law enforcement officers and street vendors.
Johannesburg - The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Friday condemned the attack on police officers by a mob of foreign national shop owners in the Johannesburg CBD whilst conducting a raid in the area to seize counterfeit goods.
IFP provincial spokesperson Bonginkosi Dhlamini said: "We are shocked and outraged at the attitude of the unruly group of traders who believe that they are above reproach and can thus run amok without ramifications for their absurd conduct.
"We therefore condemn this barbarism and flagrant violation of the law in the strongest terms possible. We must never allow any senseless attack on our brave men and women who work so hard to make our cities safe and keep any form of criminality off our streets.
"We must uproot any form of anarchy that seeks to belittle the rules and laws of our country that tells us what we can do and can’t do. This is because an attack on the police or law enforcers is, in fact, also an attack on the people of the province and an attack on the state."
Dhlamini said the party urged the Gauteng department of community safety to work closely with police to make sure that those involved be identified and brought to book.
"It is imperative that we deal decisively with those who are hell-bent on making our city ungovernable and thus turning it into a banana republic," said Dhlamini.
He said the government must never allow itself to co-govern with criminals but assert its powers to ensure that no one including civilians of foreign descent gets away with abusing those constitutionally mandated to maintain law and order.