Work on the streetsNumsa writer, Liesbet Mohutsiwa, found mixed stories when she went to interview some street traders on Johannesburg's streets. Some are legal and doing good business. Others allege harassment by metro police including theft of their sale goods and difficulty with getting trading licences.
Sanie Nenombi is a vegetable seller. His vegetables were fresh and laid on a clean hand-made table. From Mozambique, he started selling veggies in 1996 but it wasn’t his first choice."I came here to South Africa to look for a job.
I did not get any type of job that is why I ended up selling vegetables," he says."It's not easy to sell your things in Mozambique as most people are also selling." Looking down at his vegetables he confirms that business is going well.Anonymous from Cameroon sells running shoes.
He has a card to sell from his spot on the pavement "and I don’t have any problems running away from Metro.""Previously there were mines, people were doing different types of work that they could afford.
There are things that you can do but you cannot afford to do, that is why I decided to sell shoes," he says.The ladies doing braiding of hair were not happy to see me. "We are tired of these people who come to us and ask us a lot of questions, take our contact numbers and promise to come back but fail.
There's no work for us," she complained and just walked away without even saying goodbye.A 27-year old man selling his brother's cooked meat had only bad words for the metro police.
"Since my brother started selling meat 16 years ago, we were selling painfully because of this metro. Government is promoting that everyone must do something for him/herself but metro is after us.""If we rob people of their belongings, metro will put us in jail," added another seller.
"Now we are trying to sell but metro takes our food and eats it because when we go there to metro offices to pay for our goods, we find that the food has been eaten and our pots are nowhere to be found."He said that "metro does not tell us what they want. We don’t even know what to do.
We feel very bad because sometimes we pay R1600 to collect our goods!"Hair cutter, Vusi Mpofu, echoed the meat-sellers' anger with metro police."Metro failed to give us a street with shelters where we can work and pay the rent," and the result, "metro took our stuff and we had to go and pay a lot of money, around about R1050. We even lost a lot of our cutting machines and some we found broken.
"But Mr I Mogotsi from the Metro police offices told me that street traders "know very well" the rules relating to street trading and that they must comply.He said that the department of economic development is the one that approves the place for street training.
"Sellers know very well where to go and get the selling cards; we are just enforcing the laws and making sure that these spots are hygienic."
Sebenza emigwaqeniUmbhali we-Numsa, u-Liesbet Mohutsiwa, wathola izindaba ezixubile ngesikhathi eyobuza abanye abantu abahweba emigwaqeni yase-Johannesburg imibuzo.
Abanye basebenza ngokusemthethweni benza umsebenzi omuhle. Abanye basho ukuhlushwa ngamaphoyisa edolobha kubandakanya nokuntshontshwa kwezimpahla zabo abazithengisayo kanye nobunzima bokuthola amalayisensi okuhweba .
Werk op straatLiesbet Mohutsiwa, Numsa-skrywer, het gemengde verhale teëgekom toe sy met sommige van die straatverkopers op Johannesburg se strate onderhoude gaan voer het.
Sommige is wettig en doen goeie besigheid. Andere beweer dat hulle deur Metro-polisie geteister word, insluitend die diefstal van hulle handelsware en probleme om handelslisensies te bekom.
Sebetsa diteratengSengodi sa Numsa, Liesbet Mohutsiwa, se ile sa fumana dipale tse kopakopaneng ha se ne se ilo buisana le bahwebi ba bang ba diterateng mane diterateng tsa Johannesburg. Ba bang ba bona ba molaong mme ba etsa kgwebo e ntle.
Ba bang bona ba bua ka hore ba sotlwa ke mapolesa a masepala ho kenyelletswa le ho utswetswa thepa ya bona eo ba e rekisang, ekasitana le bothata ba ho fumana dilaesense tsa ho rekisa.
If any trader has any problems with the way in which Johannesburg Metro Police has confiscated goods or treated them, they can phone Mr Mogotsi on 011 490 1777 or find him at the Metro Police headquarters in Eloff Street.
Source
Numsa News