Hawkers again threaten to make the city ungovernable
Informal traders embarked on a violence protest in the city centre last Friday after metro police confiscated their trading stock and shot with rubber bullets some of them.
Furious hawkers promised to make the city ungovernable to stop the metro police form harassing them. This happened last Friday, after the Tshwane metro police confiscated their trading stock and started shooting rubber bullets and injuring a number of them.
The informal traders warned the metro, during a violent protest in the city centre, that they would cause serious disruptions to traffic and the operations of some businesses.
Various businesses were forced to shut their doors early to protect their stock from being looted.
During some of these violent protests, the informal traders are joined by drug addicts, who are referred to as ‘nyaope boys’, who loot from businesses.
On Friday, the hawkers barricaded streets with burning plastic road barriers and stones and also attacked a metro police vehicle with stones.
“We are sick and tired of being harassed by the metro police . This is a warning shot, soon we will start to make the city ungovernable,” said Shoes Maloka, leader of Tshwane Barekisi Forum.
The Tshwane Barekisi Forum is an organisation of informal traders operating around Pretoria.
Maloka said they would not apply for permission to march and their protests would be illegal.
“We know, if we apply for a protest action, they would not give us permission,” he said.
The whole scenario started when the metro police who were performing routine by-law enforcement operations, confiscated hawkers trading stock and allegedly shot some of them with rubber bullets during the confrontation.
According to Maloka, the metro police, traveling in five metro police vehicles, confiscated trading stock of 38 people near Bosman station and fired rubber bullets.
The situation irritated informal traders who retaliated by stoning a metro police vehicle on the corner of Bloed and Paul Kruger streets.
“The metro police shot at informal traders and even pedestrians who were passing by, with rubber bullets,” Maloka said.
“There is no one who will stop us from making the city ungovernable,” Maloka said.
In July informal traders asked the metro to work with them in a peaceful manner to resolve various problems.
Addressing informal traders at a storeroom facility on the corner of Lilian Ngoyi and Proes streets in the city centre, Maloka said the metro had provided topics for discussions to solve their problems in a peaceful manner.
Metro’s spokesperson, Blessing Manale, told the Rekord on 30 June that they did not recognise the Tshwane Barekisi Forum because the forum had been on the forefront of threats to mobilise thousands of informal traders countrywide
He said they only recognised the Tshwane Informal Traders’ Forum, the Tshwane Informal Traders’ Council, the Tshwane NAFCOC and the Tshwane Micro Entrepreneur’s League.
The protests affected the following streets: Proes, Lilian Ngoyi, and Struben.
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