Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The screaming started at about 10am. “Suddenly it looked as if the whole township was at war. I put my money in my cash bag and stumbled outside; that’s when I realised that something was terribly wrong,” said Daniel Mohale, a hawker who trades in Diepkloof, Soweto. “Hundreds of security guards armed with guns had converged outside and some of them were busy impounding vending equipment. I thought maybe I was just dreaming but then I realised it was really happening.” Mohale’s nightmare was shared across many parts of Soweto this week as the Johannesburg Northern Metropolitan Local Council embarked on a major blitz against the informal business in the area – vegetable and food stalls, car washers, welders and tyre vendors. Hundreds of small traders were left stranded after the council impounded their tables and the small steel containers they had bought to use as shops. Those who had built small shacks to trade from were even less fortunate – their shacks were bulldozed. The council said the blitz was part of an ongoing effort to clean up the crime-ridden township. On Monday, the council impounded the goods of more than 200 hawkers in Diepkloof and continued its onslaught throughout the week. The council says the informal businesses will have to pay about R1 500 each to recover their containers, some of which cost R6 000. The council claims the hawkers have violated trading by-laws, in some cases by having roadside vehicles – small trucks – that are not acceptable in terms of the Traffic Act, and for leaving goods on a public road. But the Diepkloof hawkers said the council evicted them despite the fact that many applied for approval to trade there a few years ago. Council executive director Nick van Deventer confirmed that some of the hawkers had made application to the council a few years ago but said the hawkers had failed to follow up the matter by checking to see whether their applications had been approved. In any case, he added that the council had not approved a single application. Van Deventer also said hawkers were warned not to leave their goods and vending equipment on council property, but many had failed to listen. “We had no option but to remove them. The by-laws clearly state that goods and containers cannot be left on council property without permission. Some people even erect shacks as well and the council does not allow that. “We are not prohibiting them from trading. Many of these hawkers place their containers on council property illegally and are causing health hazards and traffic jams,” Van Deventer said. He charged that “many hawkers remove the wheels from their caravans so that they cannot be moved, but this is illegal. All we are asking is that they remove their goods at night.” On Monday, when the Mail & Guardian visited Diepkloof, most hawkers, some of whose small vending containers had been impounded, were trading in difficult circumstances. They demanded that they be allowed to make a living and not join the long queues of the country’s unemployed. Like Moses Mthembu, most hawkers had built makeshift shelters from wood and plastic bags. Mthembu, whose table worth R600 had been seized by the council, said the council’s actions would lead to the increase of crime in the area. “People do crime and they say it’s wrong, and we start our businesses and they stop us. I don’t know what they want,” he said. Mthembu, who has been selling vegetables in Diepkloof for the past four years, said he opened his small business after he failed to get a job in Johannesburg. He originally comes from KwaZulu-Natal. Mthembu complained that the local council was making “impossible” demands. “How can they say we should remove our containers and put them in our homes? Some of us are renting here and we do not have homes,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said, his business has been badly affected by the crackdown. “I used to make more than R200 a day and now I can’t make more than R50. How will I support my children if the situation remains like this?”