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Hawkers will soon be required to have trading permits

Hawkers who contravene this law will be subjected to fines or imprisonment for up to ten years.

News that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has plans of restricing hawking to control the selling and distribution of counterfeit goods have emerged and has the South African Institute of Race Relations up in arms.

If passed into law, this means that hawkers will now have to obtain licenses in order to trade even home grown vegetables on the side of the road.

Currently the bill is documented under the Licensing of Businesses Bill of 2013 gazetted in March 2013 for public comment.

The department says that this will help stop the selling of counterfeit goods and illegal imports.

In addition to this, police officers, traffic officers, health inspectors and ordinary citizens mandated by DTI will be tasked with overseeing that the bill is rolled out effectively.

“Such inspectors will have the power to demand licences, search premises, question individuals, confiscate goods and issue administrative fines.

“Hawkers who contravene this law will be subjected to fines or imprisonment for up to ten years,” says the Department.

However this decision was received with much criticism by the National African Federated Congress of Commerce and Industry’s outgoing President Lawrence Mvundla, who says that this is just another blanket system and describes it as apartheid in another name.

Head of special research from the South African Institute of Race Relations Anthea Jeffery also does not welcome the move and says that it is not viable to impose the bill.

“Already informal traders complain of harassment and extortion by policemen seeking bribes.

“The bill will definitely result in an increase of this sort of corruption by giving many more people the power to request bribes by merely threatening informal traders with the ten-year prison term should they not comply with the regulations.

“Paying up will seem a better option than going down.

“How this will bring any benefit to society is difficult to see,” says Jeffery.

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