Chaos as hawkers dig in heels
2010-08-19
Lise Beyers
HAWKERS in Lady Grey Street held the Paarl CBD to ransom on Friday, after being denied access to their kerbside stands. An action was put into place by the Dra-kenstein Municipality with the assistance of the police and security guards, after hawkers had ignored a call from the authorities to shift their trade to Patriot Square. On Friday morning, most of Lady Grey Street was closed to traffic when hawkers were not allowed to trade. Tempers quickly flared when hawkers realised that they were losing money by the minute, and racism, xenophobia and Apartheid were all blamed for their proposed removal. Early on in the morning, the crowd of about 100 hawkers and their supporters hurled abuse at municipal officials and police officers. A handful of them also tried to storm shops which had opened their doors to the public, forcing them to keep their doors closed. Shop owners speculated that they had lost thousands of rands worth of business during the course of the morning. And despite various warnings from the police for the crowd to disperse, the hawkers continued their demonstration throughout the morning. When an official from Customs and Immigration approached some of the foreign hawkers to establish whether their permits were in order, law enforcers had to literally drag her to safety, as the foreigners vented their anger on her. The hawkers’ main complaints about their removal is the lack of shelter at Patriot Square, as well as the lack of buying power. Ganief Dulvie of the Paarl Informal Traders’ Association, said that he had no problem with the regulation of the hawkers, but was not happy with the way in which it is being implemented. “We are being moved like dogs. There is no shelter from the elements at the new designated areas. “The Municipality has refused to consult with us on this matter and my requests to have a meeting with the Mayor have not been answered.” An elderly Muslim woman who has been trading on Lady Grey Street for many years was close to tears on Friday. “We are currently fasting during Ramadan, and if we are not allowed to trade, we will not even be able to buy bread in order to break our fast tonight.” The hawkers called in the assistance of a Cosatu representative who initiated urgent talks with Drakenstein mayor Charmaine Manuel. These talks led to a “stay of execution” and the hawkers were allowed to once again set up their stands in Lady Grey Street. On Monday evening a meeting took place between representatives of the hawkers and the mayoral committee, to end the debacle. And the municipality reitterated that they will not back down. Municipal spokesperson, May Carolissen, said that Municipal Ordinances state that informal traders may only trade in demarcated areas. These areas are being set aside for them in New Street and Patriot Plein. “The Drakenstein Municipality want to develop an area for informal traders with adequate infrastructure and ablusion facilities. We will assist them with marketing and beautification and hope that their businessess grow from strength to strength.” It thus remains clear that the hawkers will have to move - peacefully or not, but when is the question.
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