Somalis achieved internal cohesion due to the hostilities they encountered once in South Africa. The common experiences in South Africa produced a group with strong moral bonds of cooperation and trust. These two fundamental norms serve as the foundation on which the Mayfair community is structured. After Nadif was shot in PE, he was advised by Abdi and Kusow to attend court to ensure a successful prosecution. Through funds raised by the community, Nadif was able to travel back to Port Elizabeth to attend court and come again to Mayfair. Abdi, Kusow and the Somali community helped in arranging all necessary travel logistics for Nadif.
Adesh whose informal job is to help secure refugee papers for new Somali arrivals is entrusted with the help of his clients without conning them. His clients pay him even before they have acquired their documents. Adesh himself does not think of absconding or cheating his clients. Adesh:
‘That one [cheating] is not acceptable. We look big, (that is, the Somali community) but we are small. Even if you go to Cape Town they will find you. There is nowhere you can go. Somalis know each other. There in Cape Town they will find you’.
Trust within the Somali community is imperative. That is why Adesh cannot cheat his clients for fear of severe ostracism. Even if Somalis are a big community their social structure is a closed one. It allows effective monitoring and sanctioning. This is what Adesh means by being ‘big’ and yet ‘small’ because each member is accountable to everyone within the community. Trustworthiness which is engendered in the Somali social structures has normative implications on what Somalis are obliged to do and what is expected of their behaviour. Parallels can be found in Coleman (1988:S105) in which he suggests that the effectiveness of norms dependent on how closed the social structure is. Closed social structures produce trustworthiness of social structures which are possessed by the Somali community.
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In 2012 Mahmood left Kenya for South Africa with 6 other young Somalis without knowing any contacts of his immediate family in South Africa. On arrival in Mayfair he had no family members to look after him. He was taken to the elders who immediately traced his clan. After three days he was taken to Pretoria where he joined a clan member from the Dir clan to which he belongs. Within the clan he managed to find relatives who helped him acquire refugee documents and later found him work in Atteridgeville. He now co-owns a shop in Cosmo City. The Somali community is organised around clans or tribes. Social capital is most likely to follow clan or tribal lines. Within the clan that is where resources are easily available. This explains why new Somalis are immediately linked up with their clan. The fact that Mahmood was looked after by the Mayfair community before they could find his clan shows how bonded together Somalis are.
Community elders like Abdi and Kusow, can influence decisions and community trajectory. By influencing collective altruism and the building of strong ethnic bonds, Abdi and Kusow are accorded prestige and power by the community. In turn, Abdi and Kusow see themselves as having the moral and social responsibility to help the community. Community elders are obliged to unofficially oversee discipline and social order within the enclave.
9.7. Social capital in creating spazas
Somali business initiatives in the townships are facilitated through social networks from the Mayfair enclave or from international connections. All 18 interviewed spaza owners either got the start-up capital from relatives living abroad or they worked for relatives in the townships before saving enough money to start their own businesses.
Inasmuch Mayfair social networks are crucial to the feasibility of Township business ventures; spazas also play a crucial role in sustaining the enclave economy of Mayfair. Some money generated from the Townships is spent in Mayfair where the majority of the Somalis live. It takes a maximum of two years to save for one’s own shop. Once struggling Somalis have saved enough they re-invest in the Township spaza, hire a family member and then go back to Mayfair where they live off the spaza dividends. Ali who owns a shop in Cosmo City but lives in Brixton (also a Muslim suburb adjacent to Mayfair) has eight years of living in South Africa. He first stayed in Mayfair for two months until his nephew found him work in Rustenburg. While working in Rustenburg he managed to pool resources with other family members and opened their shop in Rusternburg. He had heard about Cosmo City so he decided to come to Johannesburg and open his own shop in Cosmo City. He now lives off the proceeds from the Cosmo City shop. He also has shares in the Rusternburg shop. Ali deposited his own flat where he lives with his wife and children.
97 9.8. Township networks
The information about the availability of business opportunities in Cosmo City or in other Townships is openly shared among the Somali community. Somali shops in Cosmo City are located along nationality lines. Extensions 4 and 6 have the highest concentration of Somali shops. This makes it easier to maintain channels of communication with other Somali shop owners in the vicinity. While Somalis do not hold formal social or business meetings data suggests that they do keep close contact with one another. All interviewed Somalis had contact numbers of most Somali traders in Cosmo City. All Somali know each other’s shops in Cosmo City, which suggests that they are a networked group of traders. New entrants rely on other traders for information. Knowing where other traders are is important for security and trade reasons. Sharing Information makes it easy to alert other traders of pending danger in the form of protests or xenophobia. Information about security is shared among spaza traders regardless of one’s nationality.
9.8.1. Business information
While security information is shared indiscriminately among spaza traders, business information is restricted to tribal lines. This explains why spaza products are not priced the same. At Bafana Bafana one egg costs R1, while at Cheap Price shop one egg costs R1.20. Both shops are only 100m apart. At Cheap Price shop they ordered eggs from the wholesale in Cosmo City. Bafana Bafana shop ordered from one supplier in Honeydew. This suggests that Somalis do compete for markets even among themselves. They are capitalists with strong norms stressing solidarity.