Wreckers ‘tore up traders’ interdict’

Desperate Mamelodi informal traders picketed outside the High Court in Pretoria yesterday, outraged by the City of Tshwane and property developers’ disregard of a court order when over 200 of their stalls were demol- ished to build a new mall.

More than 600 informal traders were left unemployed after property developer Isibonelo Property Services and the city continued to scrap 226 stalls at the Denneboom station in September, apparently without arranging alternative trading space.

The traders had approached the high court in February, where they received an urgent court interdict preventing the developers from starting the project without proper relocation of the traders. “But on September 21 and 22 they bulldozed our stalls completely. When we presented the court interdict to the demolishers, they tore it up in our faces and told us it won’t stop them,” leader of Denneboom Informal Traders Mary Choma told The Citizen yesterday. A saddened Mamelodi trader who sold food, Anna Molamo, 58, said her children were now living in hunger since her stall was damaged during the demolition. “I have no husband. He passed away in 1982 and I have four children and five grandchildren who are not working. We all now live in starvation.” The property developers, however, had arranged for traders to relocate into containers placed at a nearby taxi rank in Mamelodi, but Choma said they would not accommodate all traders.

“They have erected 40 containers, which are 3x4m big. But that is not enough for the 226 stalls we have lost. They have now cut off water and electricity supply and have fenced the area. But the court order said they should not do so until they give us alternative space. They even used nyaope addicts to beat us when we tried to get our belongings before they demolished.”

Lawyers for Human Rights, who represent the informal traders, had applied to the high court for “constitutional damages” as traders had made a loss since the demolition.

Their attorney, Louise Du Plessis, said the matter should be heard before the court today, hopefully for a final judgment.

They told us the interdict won’t stop them

Picture: Jacques Nelles Informal traders from the Denneboom station in Mamelodi are seen yesterday protesting outside the High Court in Pretoria. The traders were evicted from the area to make way for a new mall.