Hawkers who sell goods along High Street pavements with no street vending licences are putting themselves at risk of being fined by the local Traffic Department.
Hawkers who sell goods along High Street pavements with no street vending licences are putting themselves at risk of being fined by the local Traffic Department.
Makana Municipality traffic officers have been conducting some serious patrolling along High Street recently, confiscating goods and issuing the hawkers with fines of up to R500.
Some of the fines are worth more than the goods being sold and the hawkers are not informed about how they can acquire licenses.
Lulama Skeyi, a 25-year-old Hlalani resident, said that she used to trade next to SpecSavers in High Street with her portable public telephone.
Two traffic officers confiscated the phone and issued her with a R500 fine which she was told to pay at the Traffic Department, after which her phone will be returned to her.
“I had now knowledge about this, I wasn’t even aware that I had to have a permit for my telephone. They didn’t even give me a formal warning they were unfair because it took me two weeks to raise funds so that I could get my phone back and get back to business,” said Skeyi.
Nompucuko Mpofu has now resorted to playing hide-and-seek on High Street with her trolley of oranges to not get caught.
She said that she was warned by traffic officers to get off High Street and find another place to sell her oranges and was driven to Raglan Road with her trolley to sell her goods there.
“There are a lot of hawkers at Raglan Road, so there is no demand for my oranges. “On a very good day I make about R50 at High Street, imagine how much I make here and I still have to feed my family and worst of all my husband is sick.
It would be better if they could organise a formal meeting where we could all discuss how we could come into terms to pay for the permit,” said the anxious mother of two teenagers.
Last week on Thursday morning 8 July Grocott’s Mail contacted the municipality for comment on this story. No response has been forthcoming.
