But hawkers competing for consumers’ money, has led to disagreements between licensed and unlicensed traders. Licensed hawkers are issued a marked stand on the pavement which they are allocated by the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM). To get a license, hawkers have to apply to the GTM. However, in Tzaneen licensed hawkers allege that unlicensed hawkers are costing them their business since they have to pay a monthly fee of R40 for their allocated stand while unlicensed traders pitch their stalls wherever they want to without paying anything. “Every time the municipality and police ransack our stalls to flush out the unlicensed traders, we are affected,” Linah Shipalana, a licenced trader told the Herald.
“Some stallholders move from the area where they are supposed to trade to another site, ‘renting’ their site to someone else. “Our products are damaged when they do a raid. The municipality does not know who is licensed or not. We have shown them on numerous occasions where the unlicensed hawkers are during an inspection, but they ignore us. They either don’t believe us or they do not want to remove them.
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“The unlicensed hawkers can be removed today, but tomorrow you will find them at the same place trading,” she said. She further said that they were affected greatly by the Covid-19 pandemic. “We were promised relief funds in 2020, but we never received anything,” she said. Herald talked to an unlicensed hawker who said that she cannot apply for the licence as she is a foreign national and does not have the necessary documents to be in the country. “We left our country to have a better life.
“Being in a country without the right documents makes it hard to find a job. The only option we have is to sell fruit, vegetables, and snacks. I am grateful to those who help us with their allocated lots, but they sometimes get into trouble when the police come to chase us who do not have licenses,” she said. Vutivi Makhuvele, the spokesperson for the GTM, said permits cost R50 per application. “An application is done by completing and submitting a form obtained from the Planning and Economic Development (PED) office in the GTM.
“For now we have 77 permits which have been issued to street hawkers, we also have demarcated-free trading zones where no permit or rental is required. Law enforcement is done on a regular basis in partnership with SAPS, the Community Policing Forum (CPF), and private security firms to monitor and remove illegal hawkers,” she said.
