Informal traders are organising a massive campaign to change the perception that they make the city dirty.
The campaign is scheduled to take place every Friday and started last Friday, when more than 14 leaders of Tshwane Barekisi Forum started a clean-up campaign along Lilian Ngoyi Street, from Madiba Street to Bloed Street, in the city centre.
Tshwane Barekisi Forum, one of the organisations representing informal traders in the city centre, seems to sing a different tune after they had repeatedly warned Tshwane metro they would make the city ungovernable during their violent protests in the area.
They were protesting against alleged metro police brutality to informal traders in the city centre.
The threat of making the city ungovernable did not do any good to frustrated informal traders, but instead created more tensions between them and the metro.
Tshwane metro said they did not recognise the forum. They believed the forum rather represented the interest of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and not real problems of informal traders – something the forum has repeatedly condemned.
The forum kept on saying their problems were real and blamed Tshwane metro police of allegedly harassing them and confiscating their stock while there were problems with the issuing of trading licenses.
A number of informal traders claimed they had been waiting for their trading licenses for years.
Informal traders currently embarked in a clean-up campaign to show they are prepared to work with the metro and obey the rules of the city. They said since the metro had started its clean-up operations to beautify the city, metro police had been harassing them.
Tshwane Barekisi Forum deputy secretary, Mary Ngema, said the clean-up campaign by informal traders showed they were not garbage but responsible parents who support their families.
She said they were prepared to work with the metro to make the city beautiful, however, confiscation of their stock and harassment by metro police under the theme ‘operation clean-up’ was degrading them.
“It is nothing other than calling us garbage,” Mary said.
Tshwane Barekisi Forum vowed they would clean the city every Friday and, if needed, they would clean it twice a week.
This week, the forum leadership and its members will clean up again.
For more breaking news, visit Rekord’s websites:
Also visit our Facebook and Twitter pages.
