THURSDAY, 4.30PM
ABOUT 300 Johannesburg street vendors were on Thursday morning preparing to march to John Vorster Square police station to demand the release of at least six of their colleagues arrested on Wednesday during a rampage of smashing and looting through Johannesburg.
Wednesday’s action followed a meeting at which hawkers decided to begin evicting foreign hawkers from the streets. Greater Johannesburg Hawkers’ Planning Committee spokesman Moffat Sebulelo on Thursday said the vendors would march to John Vorster Square to demand the release of vendors, including committee chairman Manikis Solomon. Sebulelo said the vendors were unable to evict foreign hawkers on Thursday morning because of the arrests.
Few foreign vendors were plying their trade in Johannesburg on Thursday morning.
Gauteng safety and security MEC Jessie Duarte on Thursday condemned the violence which accompanied Wednesday’s protest and called for an urgent meeting with hawker representatives.
”This anarchy is totally unacceptable and is clearly an attempt by some criminal elements disguised as hawkers to derail the process set in motion by the governemnt and the leadership of the hawkers to develop and address the problems facing the sector,” Duarte said. She added that she will meet the vendors on Friday.
Duarte said premier Tokyo Sexwale, finance and economic affairs MEC Jabu Moleketi and herself had in the past few months been meeting hawkers’ leaders to work out a programme that would help improve hawkers’ business capacity.