Bleak festive holiday for hawkers
Vendors evicted from their trading bays in Komani
THIRTY families in Komani may be in for a bleak Christmas after Enoch Mgijima Municipality and police yesterday removed hawkers’ stands along Cathcart and Robinson roads and forbade them from trading there in future.
Many of the hawkers are breadwinners for their families.
The authorities, who have allowed the hawkers to operate there for years, told them their stands were in violation of bylaws.
One of the hawkers, Nontsikelelo Rhawula, is the only breadwinner at home. Now she will have to rely on nothing but her grandchild’s social grant as she will not be able to sell on the street again.
“I use the money I make from selling vegetables to support my family. Now that they are removing us here, we will have no business and our children will suffer,” she said.
Rhawula said the police swore at them and threatened to beat them if they refused to move as instructed.
Queenstown Hawkers Association chairman Luyolo Makaji said they had made an agreement with the municipality that the hawkers would move, but to spaces not far from where they had operated from.
“But today we are moved and the police claim that they were told to remove us from this area. If the municipality wants us to stop this, they must give us jobs,” he said.
Acting mayor Xoliswa Xelo said they had to act against the hawkers as they had received complaints from both Sanral and local businesses in the area. Some businesses threatened to close shop, she said.
Asked why they had allowed the hawkers to operate on the streets during the year and only removed them now, Xelo said there was no correct time to enforce the law.
“We have been trying to get meetings with the hawkers for a long time but we could not sit with them. We did this last year but unfortunately when the law enforcement [officials] do not do their job correctly, people complain and we had to do the same again this year,” she said.
Xelo said they would be meeting with the hawkers in two weeks’ time to try and find a lasting solution.
Police spokeswoman Captain Namhla Mdleleni said she was not aware of the matter. —