VANDEBIJLPARK. – Small business owners, mostly informal traders, were turned away when trying to apply for new permits at the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) Local Economic Development (LED) offices in Sebokeng yesterday, May 8.
They were told by officials that the offices that the applications had closed on Thursday, May 7.
Police were called to control the rioting crowd.
Jeff Moses, a business owner, said that it was worrying that police were called to arrest them for wanting to have legal documents to continue with their businesses while they (police) are the ones that are also arresting them when they operate without the much needed documents.
The mob managed to secure an electronic conference call with LED MMC, Pius Maseko who apologised that he could not address them via the call as he was busy elsewhere. Maseko said that the business owners should come back on Tuesday and register their businesses.
The crowd later dispersed.
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