Nearly 50 informal hawkers at the taxi rank near Shoprite in Louis Trichardt lost their trading places where they had been running their stalls from for years. Since early March this year, some of them had squeezed into a piece of municipal-owned property a couple of metres from their usual place of trade.
The property where they used to trade from is privately owned. They said the property owner had informed them that he would like to put the property to other use. Limpopo Mirror could neither locate the owner nor call him, as no one knew who he is or where he could be reached.
According to the Makhado municipality's spokesperson, Louis Bobodi, the municipality was not aware of the group of informal hawkers who were removed from the private property. He said that people approached the municipality to apply for space to run their stalls daily, but that no-one mentioned this.
On visiting the premises on Wednesday, 17 March, we found the stall structures had all been demolished and litter was strewn all over the place.
Limpopo Mirror spoke to several of the stall owners, who claimed to have been negatively affected by the move to their new place of trade. "It is so frustrating to move from our usual trading place, especially considering that we have all been hit hard by the lockdown since last year. Our usual customers will now struggle to locate us as we try to squeeze ourselves into the municipality's property," said Justice Baloyi, one of the stall owners. Baloyi had been running his food stall from the taxi rank for more than four years. He said he was lucky to get an unoccupied space that was owned by someone who allowed him to trade there.
Baloyi said his new stall was not easily located as it was sandwiched between others. "Business is very slow," said Baloyi. "Since I've moved to the new trading space, I don't make what I use to. At my previous trading place, I cashed R700 a day. As I stay outside town, I need transport fare. My child, who is in Grade 11, called me today and said that he needed money for food, and at the moment I have no money at all. This is forcing me to borrow," he said.
Moses Okafor, who had also been running a food stall here for the past seven years, told Limpopo Mirror that he was unhappy to move but had no choice. Okafor was just as lucky to get a temporary place at the municipality for trading. "The owner of this place is currently not using it, but when he is back I have nowhere to go," he said, adding that he would have a hard time now to pay his rent where he lived in town.
A Tshikota resident who had been trading from the privately owned property since early 2000 said that since she had relocated to the municipal property, her life had changed completely. She too had lost her regular customers. "I am really getting very little money compared to what I used to get while trading on the private property. It makes my situation bad as I will struggle to pay my water and electricity bills, come month end," she said.
Daniel Tlou, the leader of the hawkers, who also works for the private owner, said: "I do understand the concern of the hawkers, but they should also remember that change is always hard at first. It will take some time, but their customers will find them again."