The blatant lawlessness along the R71 flies in the face of the taxpaying public.
Illegal street hawkers have been a problem along this busy provincial road since 2011 when the chamber of business and local security companies first sat down for a meeting with the Greater Tzaneen Municipality in an effort to curb the rise of the illegal behaviour that was not only against the bylaws, but also highly dangerous.
In just the past 18 months, Bulletin has reported on three separate occasions where the GTM’s Traffic enforcement team set out to demolish and destroy these street stalls. On one evening Bulletin accompanied the GTM team and documented a total of 18 stalls removed and the timber used to construct the structures were burnt on a giant pyre.
At around midnight that same evening, the hawkers returned and started reconstructing the stalls to trade at first light that following morning. Did the GTM step in again that next day and repeat their evictions? No.
They waited months before returning to remove the hawkers again.
There are those who defend the hawkers saying that they deserve to earn an income and the townsfolk should leave them be. A local journalist from another local newspaper even went as far as to say that they have the right to trade and feed their families and they are not bothering anyone.
All along the R71 are planted signs that strictly and very clearly prohibit hitchhiking (yet we have the local police doing talks at the hitchhiking hotspots to promote safety among commuters), there are signs that prohibit vehicles from stopping at the side of the road (yet we see the taxis stop all along the R71 in front of Sasol to pick up and drop off passengers), and there are of course the “no-hawking” signs which the hawkers use as anchor posts for the rickety stalls.
The fact of the matter is that there are rules – bylaws – that govern a municipality.
Those bylaws are meant to be enforced and are applicable to every individual living or trading within the boundaries of the municipality.
The R71 is maintained and managed by SANRAL and the GTM uses this fact to worm their way out of their failure to enforce the law. In the past the spokesperson for the GTM, Neville Ndlala, has told the media that the R71 is not within the municipality’s jurisdiction as it is a SANRAL road.
SANRAL in turn told Bulletin at that time that they did not have their own law enforcement arm and could therefore not remove the hawkers themselves. They said they usually employ the services of the local municipality.
At one point the GTM announced a permit system and went around town cordoning off areas where street hawkers would be allowed to trade legally provided they had applied for and obtained a hawkers permit. That seems to have been another smoke screen intended to pacify residents and not deter illegal traders.
We want to know where the occupants of these stalls go to the toilet. If you take into account that there are on average two sellers at every stall, and there are around 20 stalls, that means that at a minimum there are 40 individuals that will need to regularly relieve themselves.
Where do they go?
Where are the GTM’s health inspectors the keep claiming they have in their employ?
Why, if the R71 is not within the jurisdiction of the GTM, can the GTM Traffic police issue fines on the bridge past the showgrounds for speeding?
The section of the R71 at the centre of this issue runs through both the DA-controlled wards in the area.
Here is what happens when citizens and street hawkers clash.
