24 Jun 2013

North West District Council has embarked on an exercise to demolish illegal hawkers and vendors’ structures along the Maun/Francistown road.

In an interview, the council secretary, Mr Kwele Puso explained that the aim of the exercise was to ensure the hawkers comply with laws as their licences were not meant to construct permanent structures.

He said the hawkers contravened the bye-laws by erecting structures. He said only the street vendors’ law allowed vendors to have permanent structures, but they should verify that with the council to ensure they were not violating any law.

Mr Puso said the council resolved to consult the concerned parties through letters to warn and give them time to relocate but some failed to relocate on the stipulated time hence their structures were demolished.

Although some hawkers complained that they were given short notice, Mr Puso explained that there was no force applied as most were cooperative as officials had to implement the law.

He said they wanted to create a space along the road reserves for various services adding that the road reserves were not meant to host permanent structures. In addition, he noted that the structures were also posing a danger to road users as there was no free movement.

The council secretary said the idea to demolish the structures was not meant to make the owners suffer but to assist them to comply with the utilisation of the licence and also operate in a safe and open area.

 “We want to see Batswana being self-reliant and earn a living with our support and on the other hand we have to make sure procedures and the laws are followed,” he added.  Mr Puso said they appreciated that the informal sector promoted the local economy hence they indentified a plot for small entrepreneurs and contacted the hawkers’ committee.

“We are waiting for the committee to map the way forward and we are also bound to look for other alternative sites to accommodate all the hawkers,” he said.

He said the council would continue to support the informal sector as their interest was to ensure they sustain their businesses to uplift their living standard. He said the council was intending to construct a market for them but due to financial constraints, they were unable to start now. Ends