eThekwini Municipality denies using ‘Apartheid era’ tactics

The eThekwini Municipality has denied that they are employing Apartheid tactics to deal with the city’s street vendors as they tone down on their police raids.

About two months ago, hundreds of registered and unregistered street vendors went on a march to the City Hall to protest what they called “Apartheid tactics”.

Rasta Dladla, convenor of the march, said since the protest, the city has stopped the impounding of goods from vendors.

In a response to the vendor’s demands, Thulani Nzama, head of eThekwini Municipality’s Business Unit defended the city’s actions.

“The eThekwini Municipality has done exceedingly and abundantly well to show its commitment to having an efficient informal sector that serves to empower the most deserving and needy of our communities and for that to happen, and that cannot be achieved if we allow for unlawfulness and disorder to prevail within the informal trade,” said Nzama.

Nzama said there are currently 45 700 registered informal vendors operating within the precincts of Durban.

He added that the city has invested R1.5 billion in infrastructure to accommodate the informal traders.

“(The) issuing of fines cannot be regarded as behavious reminiscent of the Apartheid era and the Hawker Unit is a unit that was formed to inter alia regulate and see to creating an environment that allows for efficient and safe running of informal trade business,” said Nzama.

Dladla said the response from the city does not address the bureaucratic barriers for unregistered vendors to get permits leaving them at the mercy of Metro Police.

“It reeks of arrogance in totally disregarding the multitudes of traders who don’t have permits and want to earn an honest living,” he said.

Dladla has also criticised the Metro Police’s failure to protect foreign street vendors who were chased away from their stalls at the Workshop flea market by members of UmKhonto WeSizwe Military Veterans Association.

“The soldiers took vagrants from under the bridge and let them loose on decent street vendors,” he said.

“There is an element of xenophobia and criminality in this situation and the police have done nothing to help.”

Berea Mail has received reports that the foreign street vendors could be forcefully returning to their stalls in the upcoming days.