A fight over a customer
Street vendors in Fifth Avenue, in Springs, threw punches at each other over a dissatisfied customer.
According to Bennett Bila, one of the vendors involved, a customer came to return a disc to him, after she found that it wasn’t working.
The customer demanded a refund, but Bila claims he didn’t have money at that moment.
“I had just opened for business and hadn’t made money for the day,” he says.
“I told the customer that I would go and borrow it and that she should check on me a bit later.”
To his surprise, the vendor selling right next to him told the customer that Bila was lying and had the money.
“After that statement we started quarrelling, because he had no right to involve himself in my business affairs,” says the angry vendor.
Bila adds that, all of sudden, the other vendor threw the food he was eating into his face and that was when he threw his first punch.
The two were separated by onlookers, who claim that the vendors who sell CDs are forever fighting for customers.
Phindi Nhlapho (46), an onlooker, confirms that this was not the first time she had seen street vendors fighting.
“They are always fighting and I feel they should all go,” she says.
“There are just too many of them selling the same things; obviously they are bound to scratch each other.”
