The City of Johannesburg has lied about reaching amicable agreement with informal traders

Following the recent wide media publicity and decry on metro police officials attacks on an informal trader in Midrand, the City of Johannesburg has claimed that an amicable agreement has been reached with the leadership of the informal trade sector. The City of Johannesburg’s Department of Economic Development, which facilitated the urgent meeting between the trader organisations and the representatives from the city, circulated inaccurate minutes of the proceedings and lied about both parties having reached a cordial solution.

The urgent meeting was convened following allegations of abuse of power by the Metro Police officers being reported to the City of Johannesburg by the trader organisation, South African National Traders Retail Alliance (SANTRA). The organisation had called for an urgent meeting of decision makers at the City of Johannesburg regarding the request for a moratorium on the confiscation of informal traders’ goods as a means of law enforcement. Upon securing a date for the meeting with the decision makers at the city, the SANTRA leadership further communicated with the officials from city that they would bring along a legal representative to the meeting. The reason for them bringing in their legal representative was to cover for their lack of legal expertise.  However, on the day of the meeting the legal representative of the traders was refused entry or to be part of the proceedings. The officials from the city contended that no legal representative would be allowed in the meeting because the subject of moratorium on confiscation of informal traders’ goods was a legal matter.

To add misery to the frustration of the traders, the head of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department by-law enforcement team made it clear from the onset that a moratorium on the confiscation of informal traders’ goods would not be deliberated under any circumstances. He told the traders that he was uninformed of the issue of a moratorium on confiscation of goods being the main issue on the on the agenda. He then proceeded ahead to draft the new agenda of the meeting. He deliberately left out the issue of a moratorium on confiscation of informal traders’ goods from the agenda. This prompted the leadership of SANTRA to leave even before the proceedings began as they felt that it was unprofitable sitting in the meeting that does not speak address their needs and demands.

The treatment of the SANTRA delegation at the meeting reflects but a continuum of past injustices on informal traders. In many municipalities across our country, the rights of informal traders to trade and make an honest living are trampled upon. The law enforcement agents pounce on them out of their trading sites thereby forcing them to make way for new roads, trains, shopping centres and bus stations. This clearly shows that government have no regard for informal trade because they see it as a sector that is illegal and criminal. Some municipal officials use divide and rule tactics to bring conflicts amongst informal traders thereby weakening their ability to speak unison. It is clear our government still perpetuates neo-liberal agenda that serves the interests of capitalists whilst at the same time depriving the poor benefits of the mainstream economy.