GCC now wants the busiest car wash businesses in the city to evacuate and pave way for the city developmental plans. The car wash businesses have employed majority of out of school youth and the unemployed.
Their businesses start at the Ledumang four-way stop and stretches all the way to the railway. Now that GCC wants to evict them, but the car wash business owners do not welcome the development and now they feel it is just another strategy by the municipality to dispossess them of their car washes. They feel that GCC wants to take away bread from their mouths.
One car wash owner who preferred to remain anonymous told Mmegi that the city council together with village development committee (VDC) have not been transparent thus they have no clear idea on what the developmental plans are. “The council wants us to evacuate in order to allow development in the land, but the thing is the Council did not address us regarding the developments. They have not told us exactly what they have planned for us once they take our car washes away from us,” said the car wash owner.
The car wash owner added that in the GCC’s proposed developmental plans, they do not know who exactly will benefit. The owners pointed out that they cannot know who will use the place once it is developed and who will be given first priority amongst them. Yesterday, the car wash owners convened a kgotla meeting in Ledumang to seek answers and resolve the current dispute with the council. At the said meeting, councillor for Ledumang, Thuso Khubamang explained the whole developmental plans that the GCC has in store for the area.
He gave the car wash owners a clear picture of the whole developmental plans. “This developmental plan by the Council has nothing but great plans for the Ledumang community as the Council just wants to build new car washes cubicles, build stalls where other people can also get to cook and generate incomes of their own,” Khubamang said. Furthermore, Khubamang said once these new developed car washes are revamped, it is the very same car wash owners that will be given priority to rent out the new car wash spaces.
He said one would have to possess a licence for them to rent out the new spaces.
He said during the construction stage some of the car wash owners will be employed by the contractors for labour, so that they can still earn some income while the development is ongoing.
However, the mention of licences and renting out the new revamped car washes did not sit well with car washes owners as they feel the city council just wants to extort their hard earned money. They bemoaned that before all this they didn’t have to acquire any licence nor pay any rent. However, despite resistance from car wash owners, construction is expected to commence on March 1, and it is estimated it will run for over a period of 11 weeks. Once the construction of the new revamped car washes is done, the car washes owners will be called once more by the Council and VDC to sensitise them on the terms and conditions of renting out the new car wash cubicles.
Even though the car wash owners now have a clear picture of what the developmental plans are, they can’t help but wonder if the Council does not have any hidden agenda because there is no Memorandum of Understanding to bind anyone. The GCC has previously denied reports that it was driving vendors off the streets in the capital.
In December 2022, Local Government and Rural Development minister, Kgotla Autlwetse told Parliament that the government is not planning to remove structures set up by vendors, but rather encourage them to give their businesses facelift to make them attractive to customers. He said GCC will not remove or disturb operations of the informal sector businesses.
“It is my ministry's commitment to ensure that the informal sector operates within a conducive environment for sustainable livelihoods, especially at a time government has intensified efforts on value-chain development to build resilient, inclusive and sustainable local economies,” he added.
