Pretoria – Members of the Unified Tshwane Informal Traders have complained of being sidelined by the city administration.
Last week, they met mayor Solly Msimanga together with other informal traders’ organisations during a summit to discuss their grievances.
The summit was held to discuss and adopt the informal traders constitution.
But the summit had to be stopped for a while when members of the the Unified Tshwane Informal Traders and Tshwane Barekisi Forum exchanged heated words.
Unified Forum claimed that they were kept at arm’s length and that only members of the Tshwane Barekisi Forum stood to benefit from the city’s programmes.
They said they wanted to clarify the position of the city on the issue of trading licences.
They also wanted to know how the Tshwane Market benefited informal traders.
The summit was also meant to deal with elections of regional bodies representing informal traders.
Their leader, Vincent Matjeng, said: “It is like we do not exist. Barekisi always gets first preference. We thought that under the new DA-led administration the treatment would change but it seems it is getting worse.”
Matjeng said his fellow traders wanted Msimanga to address the fact that Shoes Maloka from Barekisi was not representing the issues of all the city traders, but merely looking out for his own.
“Favouritism must fall; we are all part of the metro and all render important services."
“Barekisi must learn to take a back seat and stop trying to be in the driver’s seat all the time,” said Matjeng.
Barekisi secretary Mary Ngema denied that the organisation was favoured by the city."
Lebogang Masooa of the city said: “It must be mentioned that the city held the informal traders elections where a committee was democratically elected – the committee consists largely of Barekisi members."
“Those who were not happy with this outcome have since formed the Unified Tshwane Informal Traders, which is not recognised by the city.”
Masooa said despite this position, the city was happy to announce that a constitution was adopted.
“The city recognises the democratically elected committee as a representative for informal traders in all its seven regions,” she added.