Hawker permits not scrapped

This is according to municipality spokesperson Neville Ndlala who dismissed the reports and said permits were still required to trade in areas that were not free trading zones around town.

“We issued licences with identity cards and we have around 90 people that have been approved and received their hawker permits. But there are places in town that are free trading zones where you do not need a permit to operate such as the Boxer area and the taxi ranks as well. These areas do not require a permit and they manage themselves there under respective hawker associations but within the CBD we have made allocations for stalls and they have permits.”

He said, however, those that had permits were allowing others to squat and sell there as well.

“From time to time we go and do operations but they keep coming back. On the R71 no one is allowed to sell there and no permit has ever been issued but people still go and start trading there, we remove them and confiscate their goods but they keep coming back.”

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“We are working hand in hand with law enforcement to see if there cannot be any prosecution of those who keep disregarding the law. We issue warnings, then fines and if still there is no adherence we then have to take the prosecutorial route.”

He said they had suggestions to move them to allocated spaces for trading but they were refusing.

“We had suggested next to Spur where there was a tourism centre but hawkers are targeting where there is a lot of traffic such as the R71 where people pass coming from Phalaborwa, or Polokwane. Even inside town we have the same issue because they target where there is high traffic so even if we relocate them they will still come back and due to them being poor and unemployed when we act we get major backlash but the law is the law.”

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He said on busy roads it was also a safety hazard and they were also looking into it to avoid more hawkers encroaching on busy roads. He said so far there was no solution to the impasse and resistance we are encountering.

He said they had done campaigns to raise awareness on where and how to trade within GTM jurisdiction. “We have a division that deals with hawkers and associations and recently we met them and brought them up to breast with the issue and they are well aware of how it works.”

He said they were doing investigations on those allowing people to squat on their allocated stalls and the division would take action from there. He added that the squatting and trading on busy roads was exacerbated by a lack of space as everyone wants an area with high traffic and there was a long waiting list of allocation for when there is space in the CBD.