Hawkers host Women’s Month celebration – without Tshwane metro’s help
The metro said the event did not affect the city’s daily operations.
Informal traders’ dreams of hosting a Women’s Month celebration were realised on Tuesday despite issues around financing the event.
“We are so happy to have successfully hosted our event,” said the leader of the informal traders, Lilly Sambo.
She said they shared skills and ideas, which were a critical part of the celebration.
“Thank you to the women for making this day a success.”
She said the event was a clear indication that women who own informal businesses now know what they want.
Black and gold were chosen as the colours for the celebration attended by more than 50 members of the Informal Traders Women in Action group.
ALSO READ: Angry women traders take Tshwane metro on
It was held in front of the Tshwane House municipal offices after the group and the metro clashed last week due to the metro not financing the event.
At the beginning of the event, the Tshwane metro police had to intervene to prevent participants from blocking traffic on Madiba Street in front of the Tshwane House.
The group had initially planned to set up tables and have their celebration on the street for the entire day.
This was after the informal traders had put tables and stock on the street in an attempt to host the event at the spot that would disrupt morning traffic by completely blocking the motorists driving on Madiba Street between Lilian Ngoyi and Sisulu streets.
“We wanted people of the city to know that the metro was not treating us well and it did not recognise us,” said Sambo.
She called on the metro to meet their demands including, among others, to release Covid-19 relief funds meant to benefit informal traders, stop allegedly ill-treating informal traders and failing to recognise them or else face a revolt.
“We want the city to meet our demands or else we will make the city ungovernable.”
The metro said the event did not affect the city’s daily operations.
“No work-related activities from our side were disrupted,” Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo told Rekord.
Regarding the hawkers’ demands, the metro said that they had never abused informal traders but treated them as critical economic stakeholders who contribute towards job creation and food security.
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