Hawkers to seek audience with Khama
Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Friday April 25, 2014 12:54
Chairperson of the Thusanang Bagwebi Association, Kagiso Masupane, told Mmegi that they have engaged a consultant to put together a letter listing concerns they wish to share with the President.
Among numerous issues, the letter is expected to demand the return of properties seized and dumped at Gamodubu Landfill last year. The vendors will also ask for the amendment of rules to allow them to pitch structures and sell their wares in the city.
“What we have been told is that we are not street vendors but hawkers,” said Masupane.
“We want to ask for the law to be reviewed to allow us to sell as street vendors because that is the only way it will work for us.
“We can no longer sell from door-to-door like in the olden days. It only works when people can find us in one place, where they can find all they need.”
Since their tables, shades and some goods were seized, the Association has engaged councillors, Members of Parliament and even the leadership of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in vain.
While some hawkers are back in business, others have collapsed and are now struggling to accumulate stock once more to return to their trade, said Masupane.
GCC Town Clerk, Mpho Mathe, told Mmegi that the matter with the hawkers has long been closed. The Council says it will not return or replace the structures and merchandise dumped at the landfill.
“Yes they complained but we will not be giving anything back. This is because we had given them notice to vacate and then some more days after the notice lapsed. We gave them ample time before we took action,” he said.
“As far as the council is concerned this matter is over.
“The city is actually cleaner. Some have moved after the raid and the city is looking better,” said Mathe.
He said while the council was not against street vending, it required traders to carry their tables, shades and other structures back home at the end of the day.
“About 75 percent of these people (hawkers) do not have street vending licences, we however allow them to pitch temporary shelters and sell, so long as they are Batswana. There is an expectation that they keep the city tidy,” he said.
“What the council has observed is that at the end of the day, vendors take home what is valuable and leave broken tables around, leaving the city untidy.
“There would be no raids if they kept the city tidy. That is all we ask; that they tidy up.”
While the town clerk agrees that there is a need to review laws, he maintains that the “tables should be taken home while talks continue”.