Metro police recently revealed why expensive vehicles could be seen parked next to makeshift illegal vendor stalls situated on the side of the road.
According to Metro police officer Raymond Koloti, in his experience, vendors can pocket around R1 500 per day. “Metro police are aware of vendors in the Struben’s Valley area, along Cascades and Fredenharry roads, who use sweets as a cover for selling alcohol and drugs from the roadside,” said Koloti.
He explained that from their experience in the area, Metro police believe the vendors contact each another when police officers are patrolling the area because, by the time they get to the vendor’s normal spot, they have packed up and vanished.
Koloti added that once when they did catch a particular vendor on Fredenharry Road, the vendor had R1 500 on him in R100 and R200 notes. This is suspicious when the type of merchandise sold is cheap packets of chips.
Koloti explained that it is the upmarket vehicles, such as BMWs, that will be seen stopping next to these illegal vendors to buy their wares. “We can’t catch these criminals by ourselves. They are becoming increasingly clever every day and we need residents to give us information or anonymous tip-offs.”
The officers impounded an illegal vendor’s abandoned goods on their patrol on 3 November. Metro police Superintendent Wandile Mrubata said the vendors never collect their confiscated sweets, as it is not where the real money lies.
Mrubata added that more illegal vendors have arisen because of illegal taxi ranks. Ward 97 councillor Leah Knott agreed and said, “Vendors can be attributed, in my mind, to informal and illegal taxi ranks which are becoming a huge issue. The problem here is no public transport facilities have been made available for taxis, so really, what do we expect.
“I have spoken with our transport department about this and we are currently waiting on land to be identified in order to facilitate taxis with proper facilities.
“I also believe that traffic impact assessments on all new developments should include an assessment of public transport and requirements to cater for them.”
During the Metro police’s drive through Struben’s Valley and the surrounding areas, the officers impounded wooden screens being sold on the side of the road. Mrubata explained these sellers are also considered illegal vendors and also contribute to the cleaning cost of the City as they leave the roadside dirty.
