Hawkers get marching orders
Small traders on busy routes say council order to get permits or go threatens their livelihoods
ILLEGAL hawkers trading in Nelson Mandela Bay suburbs could have to close their small businesses after the municipality vowed to remove them from the streets. Givemore Shemo, 38, of Motherwell, is one of more than 20 informal traders who sells wooden furniture along 17th Avenue in Walmer.
He was issued with a notice to comply with municipal bylaws to obtain a permit or to stop trading on the busy road.
Shemo said most of the traders had been told last week to pack up and go.
“This is our livelihood. We are not employed, we employ ourselves. We are just trying to sell for a living. There is a high rate of unemployment. It is not easy to get a job.
“What we do is skilled work, we make drawers and chairs and it’s all part of using your God-given talent.
“There is no way anyway can employ you to do that,” Shemo said.
“This would be killing us – killing everything we have got for our kids and families. We are not in the crime business we are just trying to sustain a living,” he said.
The father of four said he had been stationed at 17th Avenue for more than 10 years.
“This is what we have been doing for many years and this has changed since the DA came into office. We have been doing this without disturbances,” Shemo said.
According to a report compiled by human settlements executive director Nolwandle Gqiba, land use enforcement officers conducted inspections on 17th Avenue, Buffelsfontein Road, 8th Avenue and Main Road – all in Walmer.
The report, tabled in the standing committee last week, says the officers issued compliance notices on the same day.
“In the last few months, there has been a mushrooming of informal traders along the municipal transportation corridors.
“The main focus was to clamp down on the illegal use of land by informal traders,” Gqiba wrote.
He said the site inspections revealed that wood off-cuts made areas dirty, while in some instances goods blocked motorists from exercising vigilant driving at intersections.
“The process of obtaining appropriate use rights in order to facilitate and promote informal traders has never been initiated by the economic development, tourism and agriculture (EDTA) [department], which is envisaged to be the custodians of the management of informal traders,” Gqiba wrote.
The department is creating a policy for informal trading which will go to public participation by the end of the year.
Other areas mentioned in the report are Motherwell, Kwamagxaki, Kwadwesi, Korsten, and Richmond Hill.
Human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga said yesterday the purpose of the report was to give mayor Athol Trollip an understanding of land use in Walmer, Richmond Hill and on the William Moffet Expressway.
“We have been inundated by complaints from residents, and we are looking into enforcing bylaws. We will also look into providing alternative markets where the hawkers would sell their products,” he said.
Councillors in the human settlements standing committee pleaded with Bhanga on Friday to assist informal traders by either formalising them or providing alternative trading space.
The city is also clamping down on both formal and informal businesses that are trading illegally in the metro by enforcing bylaws.
EFF councillor Zilindile Vena said it was wrong for Bhanga to remove poor people who were trying to make ends meet.
“We know where this thing comes from. We know that you cannot stomach our people. There is a dysfunctional office at EDTA and our people are systematically chased away to make the city look clean.”
“Can we please address how we formalise informal traders. The ANC was at least patient with people and your impatience is not going to fix this,” Vena said.