DURBAN- Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) economic development MEC Sihle Zikalala has promised to crack down on illegal traders who are threatening the province’s economic growth.
Zikalala said this as he and eThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede criss-crossed the city yesterday as part of raids on illegal businesses. Among the areas they visited were Cato Manor, Chesterville, Berea and Point.
They were accompanied by the city’s health assurance officials and KwaZulu-Natal Liquor Board authorities.
“The days of illegal trading are over in KwaZulu-Natal as a whole. We want to ensure that people are trading within the law, and are registered within the municipality,” he said.
Zikalala said before he went on the raid he warned city and provincial law enforcement agencies to timeously conduct patrols and enforce regulations, “and ensure that those who are trading illegally are arrested”.
He said his department would, in March in Mandeni, launch a programme to assist township and rural legal traders to buy their stock in bulk to maximise their benefits.
“We will not allow them to be subjected to unfair competition by people who are coming with containers,” said Zikalala.
In Chesterville, police who accompanied Zikalala seized a steel container full of stock after its owner had failed to produce documents.
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Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) economic development MEC Sihle Zikalala has promised to crack down on illegal traders threatening the province’s economic growth.
In Point, Zikalala instructed police to use padlocks and chains to close a number of shops including a nightclub, with no windows or ventilators and whose owner could not produce trading documents.
Bangladeshi national Faruq Umar was forced to put his large quantity of expired stock in black plastic bags and load them into a garbage truck. Some items found on shelves included baby formula, which had expired in 2015. Gumede said the raids were a response from communities who had complained about the mushrooming of unlicensed traders in their areas.
“We are putting our foot down. We have a unit within the city called CIIU (City Integrity and Investigation Unit) where people can lodge complaints,” said Gumede.
Zikalala said the negative impact of illegal trading on the provincial economy was serious.
“When people work or trade illegally they negatively impact those who trade legally. Some of these illegal traders are trading products that are not made in South Africa and look like counterfeit products.”
Zikalala added that illegal clothing and textile traders would be the next to be targeted. He urged community members not to shut down illegal traders in their communities, but rather to report them to the municipality that would deal with them through this campaign.
Gumede said the municipality would enlist the help of councillors to identify illegal traders.
“I will be working with the MEC and with councillors in different communities in order to stop such things from continuing,” she said.