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EFF has criticized Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba for the arrest of informal traders in the city.
"EFF in Johannesburg was disappointed by the mayor's foreign attitude towards small business people who do business in the city and strongly condemned the continued arrest of informal traders," the party said in a statement.
This follows a Tweet by Mashaba on Monday where he claimed he had made the first citizen arrest, after a man was arrested for pushing a trolley filled with about 20 head of cattle through central Johannesburg.
"I just personally stopped this illegal act in our city. How do we allow meat trade like this? I waited @AsktheChiefJMPD to come and attend before we experienced an unknown disease disorder at our @CityofJoburgZA," he tweeted.
The move was welcomed by mixed reactions on social media.
While some people congratulated Mashaba for enforcing food safety standards, others accused him of killing small businesses.
Twitter users show that the practice of transporting and selling meat in this way has been going on for decades.
Responding to the complaint, Mashaba tweeted: "Black business is not about endangering the health of our population … There is a big difference between chaos and ongoing business. Our country cannot pay for unknown health problems."
& # 39; Racist views & # 39;
"The EFF wants to condemn the views of ignorant and strange mayors about the casual relationship between African trade and disease mutations."
The party said they suspected that this "illiterate medical posture" was "forced upon him by a crowd of white people".
"We say this is because it is inconceivable for former informal traders who on various occasions share stories about being raised in harsh conditions by domestic workers can foster such racist views that recognize black people as uncivilized scavengers and carriers of deadly diseases," according EFF statement.
On Tuesday, social media users were also called Mashaba for being rude when he added Ebola's concerns to the mix.
One detractor tweeted: "Don't kill small businesses rather than trying to help people. These people are trying to make a living and should not be excluded from parties in the mainstream economy, they need help with compliance issues. [sic]. "
& # 39; The health of our people is first & # 39;
Mashaba tweeted back: "We will sit back and allow people like you to take us Ebolas in the name of small businesses. Health of our people first. Our health facilities have stretched to the limit (sic)."
The comments were slammed by some on Twitter, including constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos.
"If you: a) see & # 39; people like you & # 39; (referring to strangers) b) then equate being foreign to bring ebola (equating a stranger with an illness) c) then talking about" our people first ", in my book it's xenophobia Crazy in prejudice and antagonism towards strangers," De Vos tweeted.
The EFF calls for the formalization of informal trade through the creation of zones and informal trade locations served.
"Cities must invest in infrastructure and incentives for these zones."
The parties said they would meet with informal traders in Johannesburg to get involved with them in the manifesto proposal and "jointly work on strategies to deal with Metro harassment".
"Mayor Mashaba must withdraw his pretentious remarks and apologize to informal traders."
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