Ever Chingobe, 33, sells fruit and vegetables on the corner
of Russell Road and Govan Mbeki Avenue in Port Elizabeth.
She was one of about 30 Zimbabwean hawkers whose stalls
were ransacked by a group of South Africans on Friday afternoon. The group, who
also sell fruit in the area, claim to be losing customers to the Zimbabwean
traders selling goods at lower prices.
“I want to survive like them. They must leave me alone,”
Chingobe told GroundUp.
She said, “A group of women stormed my shop. They told me
that whatever I sell should cost R15, instead of R10. I asked the women, would
they go to Shoprite and force them to sell fruit at R15?”
Another hawker, Blessing Ziumbe, said, “They suddenly
arrived and told us to go … There was no agreement about selling fruit at R15 …
We used to sell pirated CDs and DVDs but after we were arrested and fined by
the police, we then introduced fruit.”
Ziumbe said they were not given an opportunity to resolve
the price dispute.
On Friday afternoon, hawkers were seen shouting insults at
one another. One of the South African hawkers shouted, “Take your goods and
leave. Don’t drag your feet. Pick them up now,”
He was shouting at a Zimbabwean woman kneeling on the
ground as she wrapped her goods in a sheet.
South African hawker Maureen Skhwentu sells fruit and
vegetables from a kiosk she rents from the Mandela Bay Development Agency
(MBDA). “We are aware that Zimbabwean hawkers also have families, children to look
after – like us. But it is hard to make money that would feed me and my
children and cover the R90 rent bill [for the kiosk] because of foreign
people,” she said.
MBDA Operations Manager Mcebisi Ncalu said no permits had
been issued. “It is just through arrogance, disrespect and disregard of law
that these foreign illegal traders forced their way into the subway [area to
sell],” said Ncalu.
The MBDA is contracted to keep the central city clean and
to monitor and issue permits to hawkers.
Ncalu said that the “action by the mamas” on Friday had
come about because law enforcement officers had not done their job enforcing
the City’s laws. GroundUp
0 comments:
Post a Comment