Bellville station shopping centre is a beige two-storey building on the corner of Durban Road and the train station parking lot. Shops selling clothing and electronic goods spill out onto the pavement, which is assailed by a steady stream of hurried pedestrians who dodge trollies, mannequins and boxes as they go about their daily business. The ground floor smells like a combination of disinfectant and incense and contains more small shops and a busy cafeteria. Grey tiled steps lead up to the first floor, which houses an office belonging to an imam. This is where I find myself one afternoon in September 2010. I am here with Mohamed Aden Osman, the Western Cape co-ordinator of the Somali Retailers’ Association (SRA) of South Africa.

I am in Bellville to conduct my first interview for the project I am doing for the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits. My recruitment was unexpected. One morning, while experiencing problems logging onto my university email address, I came across a job advertisement on the university's website. At the time I was a master's student at the University of Cape Town, with limited funds to support my studies. The post looked interesting. The ACMS was looking to hire a researcher to investigate the ability of foreign shopkeepers to access justice when they were victims of crime. The research focused on the Western Cape Province, where many incidents of violent crime had occurred, and also where I happened to live. I applied, and before long I was appointed to the position. Shortly thereafter I made my first trip to Bellville, where I found myself parked outside Bellville train station waiting to meet Mohamed.

Bellville is a historically white, mainly Afrikaans suburb located 25 kilometres north-east of Cape Town. Today it serves as a key business and transport node between the city, outlying suburbs and nearby agricultural regions. Somali shops line the end of Durban Road, which descends into Bellville train station, and turns up towards Bellville taxi rank. ‘Shops in Bellville's business district are equally as profitable as in the city centre, but pay 30 per cent less rent,’ a resident business owner later tells me.

I am interested in Mohamed's feedback, as Somali shopkeepers seem particularly vulnerable to violent attacks.