DURBAN - ETHEKWINI Municipality street traders facing eviction for non-payment of rent blame their ward councillor for neglecting them.
Traders, who spoke to the Daily News at the weekend, said they had received notices with hefty rental bills and were told to settle them or face legal action. Traders, mainly from the stalls outside The Workshop shopping complex in the city centre, said that in 2018, ward councillor Ntando Khuzwayo told them to stop paying rent until the municipality had restored calm after the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) clashed with foreign nationals who were also trading in the area.
A trader from uMlazi, who declined to be named, said she had received a letter from the municipality with a R30 000 bill to settle or face legal action. She said as traders, they tried to get advice from the ward councillor since he was the one who had told them to stop paying rent, but he was no longer attending to them.
“He has neglected us when we needed him most … Most of us will not be able to pay, which means we will be evicted,” said the trader. They also complained that the municipality added rent from March last year when the country was on level 5 lockdown, when businesses were closed.
Concerned Informal Vendors leader Themba Mkhize accused the councillor of running away and leaving traders in the cold. Mkhize, who is also the Durban CBD crime monitor, said: “We call on councillor Khuzwayo to come and talk to the traders about this problem he created. He must come back and account for what he started.”
Several attempts to contact the councillor failed. Khuzwayo is also a supporter of former president Jacob Zuma in the eThekwini region and has been vocal about his incarceration.
The MKMVA leader in eThekwini, Dumisani Cele, said his organisation was in talks with the municipality to resolve the matter amicably. He said traders should not worry for now because there was an agreement that they would not be evicted while negotiations continued.
Municipality spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo said the municipality would not comment as the matter had first to be discussed.
Daily News