Local hawkers plead for permits from City of Johannesburg

With the high rate of unemployment in South Africa, citizens have discovered multiple ways to make ends meet and put bread on the table for their families.

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Informal food retailers, including street vendors, use innovative strategies such as offering credit, selling food in affordable quantities, par-cooking food and working long hours.

This means that they play a central role in enabling food access and as a result improve food security for the urban poor.

According to Mphiliseni Ximba, one of the hawkers from Jabulani Mall, Metro police is their biggest challenge when it comes making profit and provide for their families.

They state that JMPD comes and impound their stock leaving them with nothing to work with and later demand a certain fee to retrieve their taken goods.

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“Metro just comes unannounced to take our staff claiming that we are using the government’s space. Whereas we have been going to the UBC to apply for permits but been sent back and forth,” said Ximba.

“We have to pay an amount of R1000 or more in order for us to get our stuff back.

“But when we go there, we don’t find our staff and no one cares to take responsibility in helping us get our things back. This is our way of making a living,” he added.

The living conditions that hawkers from Jabulani Mall endure do not only impact the traders but also the cleanliness of the environment.

Hawkers are pleading with the government that they provide them with aids that will help prevent illegal dumping.

Jabulani Mall hawkers have formed an organisation to fight for their rights called Qedindlala Hawkers Association.

The association aims to build a healthy relationship between the traders and the municipality.

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“We have had a lot of engagements with government representatives trying to bring proper balance between humans and the environment, to make sure that the environment is not littered by what we use as vendors,” said Shingirirai Chocho, Secretary for Qedindlala Hawkers Association.

“We are urging the government to come to the party and provide us with bins and toilets for the people who are working here,” Shingiriria added.

Shingiriria concluded by saying that as traders they want a healthy environment between Jabulani Mall and them and they are ready to work according to the provisions of the by-laws.