Hawkers finally get their promised stalls

Conducting business in the pouring rain will be a thing of the past for hawkers in Mqanduli, thanks to 45 new sheltered and lockable stalls donated to them by the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality.

KSD mayor Dumani Zozo, speaking on Friday at the handover event, said the provision of the stalls was also an attempt to clean up the town of Mqanduli and return it to its former glory.

He said it was the hawkers’ responsibility to keep the area around their stalls clean, “do not sell drugs or allow them to be turned into crime havens; these are for you but still the property of the municipality”.

Zozo said the municipality was looking into assisting hawkers financially, but first needed a clear understanding of all the different informal businesses that were operating.

“Mqanduli is growing and has so much potential.

“We are busy with development projects to attract business and people and this is just the beginning because there are about 400 hawkers here.

“We still have a long way to go but through teamwork we will [hopefully have] fewer quarrels, we are also looking into establishing a proper trading facility for our informal traders and small businesses,” said Zozo.

He said the municipality’s vision was to see hawkers competing with supermarkets.

“Hawkers choose this route because there are no other options left, jobs are scarce.

“Some have no employable skills and for them informal trading is their only way to make a living, so as the municipality, we have a responsibility to empower them,” said Zozo.

He said the procurement of the 65 stalls – 20 of which were given to hawkers in Mthatha – had cost R5m.

“This is a huge investment because those funds could have

The stalls would restore some dignity to informal traders

been used to fix roads or improve infrastructure but we chose to prioritise the stalls because we made this promise back in 2016 after the hawkers told us that they wanted better trading spaces.

Simthembile Ndungane, of the African Hawker’s Association, said the stalls would restore some dignity to informal traders.

“There are still so many others, the municipality still has a long way to go but we are more than happy with this step.

“For many years we have watched our traders suffer from the harsh winter cold and equally gruelling summer heat,” he said.