She was speaking at the launch of the national informal business summit in Bloemfontein where delegates will be looking at ways to help informal businesses grow into the formal economic sector. Zulu said what has happened in the bigger Tshwane area was wrong.

She said it was tragic because the looting and violence have targeted the most impoverished within those communities. She said the destruction is a setback for those township and rural economies that require development and growth the most.

Zulu said township entrepreneurs fend for themselves and their families against all odds. She said informal traders who suffer damages in this manner are usually left without the means of re-establishing themselves. In such instances, without their livelihood, these families turn to the state for help.

Zulu said the state cannot turn a blind eye in situations such as this and must help and look for money and resources to assist. The funds for this will most likely be redirected from other priority government programmes.

In the end those that have looted have looted from the state and ultimately stolen from themselves and their own development, said Zulu.

OFM News