Harding hawkers cry foul over electricity

The informal traders’ committee in Harding has lashed out at Umuziwabantu Municipality Municipal Manager, West Gumede accusing him of being a stumbling block to their economic trading rights.

The hawkers claim that Mr Gumede had appointed an electrical contractor to remove their metered electricity and install prepaid meters without proper consultation.

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Committee chairman, Sandile Nyawose said that during the construction of the market stalls, they were informed that prepaid electricity would have been installed by the time they took occupation

.However, he said, this had not happened and they were now being told to pay R2 600 for the installation of the prepaid meters.

“This tells us that they have misused the money – they told us that prepaid electricity had been budgeted for but now they tell us to pay for the installation.”

Mr Nyawose said that right now they were out of work and went to bed with empty stomachs.

“Our stall keys were taken and now we are jobless. We submitted our written complaints to the municipal leadership who have said that they do not understand the circumstances that led to us being forced out of our stalls and rendered jobless.”

Municipal spokesman Bruce Jalubani said: “The municipality has held several meetings with the informal traders’ committee where a number of issues – including electricity and the beautification of the market stalls – were discussed.

“It is not true that the municipality has not been in consultation with informal traders. On the issue of electricity, the Municipal Systems Act obligates users of municipal services to pay for the services they consume.

“In this regard, the municipality is following due processes to acquire pre-paid meters to ensure sound administration and accountability for all electricity consumption taking place in the market stalls.”

Mr Jalubani acknowledged that the municipality had removed some connections which, he said, were illegal and a “direct contravention of the legal prescripts pertaining to provision and consumption of municipal services”.

“The municipality urges all concerned parties to respect the due processes and desist from taking matters into their own hands through illegal connections.”

Another issue raised at the meeting concerned the appearance of the stalls.

“The municipality wants to place on record that ceilings were never a part of the approved project, hence no funds were allocated for this purpose,” said Mr Jalubani.

“However, the informal traders’ committee made the submission to the municipality at a later stage. The municipality considered their request and provision has been made for this work in the current financial year.”

Mr Jalubani added that the municipality had asked the informal traders to return the stall keys as the municipality needed to perform re-allocations following a number of concerns raised regarding the manner in which allocations were done in the beginning.

“However, informal traders refused to return the keys and the municipality is of the understanding that they are still occupying the market stalls. The municipality is not in possession of those keys since the committee refused to allow the municipality to retain the keys.”

The municipality, he said, was planning to meet with the informal traders’ committee before the next sitting of council on August 31 to discuss their concerns about the project.

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