Siyabonga Sithole
Merchandise sellers who were given permits to sell their wares at the ANC Provincial Conference held at The Lakes Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg are up in arms with some of the ridiculous security measures being implemented at the conference.
Seller Julia Sethoko, who sells jackets and T -shirts at the venue, arrived at the venue at the security checkpoint at around 7am and was still trying to finish setting up by 10am.
She says that after having paid R700 to secure her stall at the conference she feels cheated as she could not bring her own car around to make it easy for her to offload her merchandise.
"I was not able to bring my merchandise around because the car I came with could not be given the permit to go past security. I have been taking my merchandise and stall equipment one by one from the checkpoint to the venue.
Mind you, today is raining and they can't even help us carry our equipment. I feel cheated by the whole process of having to go through all these security measures as I am losing out on money I could have made during this time," Sethoko told The Star.
Another merchandiser who wanted to stay anonymous said that she encountered the same problem when trying to bring her merchandise over to the venue.
"We had to leave our cars further from the security checkpoint and bring our stock over bit by bit by foot so we could set up. We really struggled this morning," she said.
The ANC merchandise seller who specialises in winter hats and jackets said she hoped for a good day of trading on Saturday as it was a cold day even though there are plenty of people selling similar items.
"Days are not the same. Sometimes you make more and sometimes you make less. There are too many of us selling similar clothing items. But there is nothing one can do," she said.
Mama Joyce Moloto from Ekurhuleni says she runs a tab for her loyal customers from Ekurhuleni.
"I am from Ekurhuleni and most of my customers know me. I give them items on credit and run a tab for them that they pay at the end of the month. The problem is that you can run out of stock and not get the money you were hoping for, which is something that is not nice with running a tab," she said.