City taken to court over hawkers

The SA National Traders’ Retail Association announced its plans to take the City of Johannesburg and the Metro police to court following the implementation of the city’s ‘clean sweep’ campaign, which displaced thousands of informal traders.

The association’s spokesperson Edmund Elias said it had submitted an urgent application at the Johannesburg High Court to prevent the city from demolishing any further stalls and to compel the city to allow informal traders who had been verified and were allowed to trade to return to their previously allocated areas and continue trading.

Through the court application, the association seeks to ensure that the city will replace all of the stalls that were demolished or allow the informal traders to return to their trading sites without any further interference from the city or Metro police.

Elias said the legal action also seeks to ensure that the city provides reason for its decision to relocate informal traders and prohibit informal trading in areas that were demarcated for this purpose.

He added that the city had not provided these answers.

The association also seeks a review of the city’s decisions to demolish existing stalls, which were being leased from the city by its members, and to remove traders from the CBD and prohibiting informal trading in certain areas in the CBD.

Nthatisi Modingoane, City of Johannesburg spokesman declined to comment, saying it was now a court matter.

Meanwhile, The One Voice hawkers’ organisation has condemned Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau’s action against informal traders and demanded his resignation.

According to media reports, One Voice spokesperson Zakes Ramotolana said, “Our mayor has now turned his back against street hawkers, and forgets that his mother was once a hawker selling tomatoes.”

Times Live reported that Ramotolana attacked Tau’s treatment of informal traders and he called for the reinstatement of former mayor Amos Masondo.