05 Aug 2018

North West District council legal advisor, Mr Otsweletse Moupo has urged small entrepreneurs to abide by the bye-law regulations in place, to avoid friction with law enforcement agencies. 

He said during a stakeholder consultative meeting which brought together different departments to sensitise small entrepreneurs about the policies and to appreciate the bottlenecks in the implementation processes. 

The aim of the meeting was also to solicit ideas on what could be done to ensure that bye-laws do not disadvantage entrepreneurs. 

Mr Moupo described informal sector as a vital organ that catered for the livelihood of many families across the country.

He said the economy could not create adequate employment opportunities and therefore the communities were encouraged to venture into businesses to fill the void. 

However, he expressed concern that some people ignored the policies and operated illegally, especially at the village’s old mall shopping complex. 

He raised a concern about the state of environmental cleanliness in the shopping complex and its surrounding noting that the area was not attractive because of littering. Mr Moupo emphasised that a clean environment was an important element of good living and health. 

He urged entrepreneurs to cooperate with law enforcement agencies noting that their mandate was to implement the policies and making sure that entrepreneurs abide by the stated laws. He urged them to ensure compliance and maintain the beauty of the mall.

 Meanwhile, different departments such as Fire, Physical Planning, Environmental Health, Bye-law, Commercial and Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) sensitised the gathering about their services and what should be done to ensure healthy businesses. 

Bye-law enforcement superintendent in the council, Mr Phemelo Matome said they were tasked with the formulation and implementation of bye-laws to regulate businesses to ensure safety standards were met. He said they had observed that many people were operating illegally without licenses citing some car wash businesses. 

Mr Matome mentioned that they used to repossess their property and later realised that some were beneficiaries of poverty eradication programme. “We are here to consult, solicit ideas and see how we can harmonise the policies because we want to consider you when we do our plans. We want to review some of the policies, make amendments if possible and see if we could change some of the licenses to ensure they do not disadvantage you,” he added. 

Mr Kagiso Phokoje from Fire department expressed concern about some people who sold food in the streets or open spaces using cylinder gases and firewood.

 He said that was risky as it created a conducive environment for explosion ,endangering lives of members of the community.

He also advised against the use of water to put out fire,advocating for the use of fire extenguisher in the event of fire.

An official from Physical Planning Unit, Mr Tumelo Shabani explained that it was illegal to operate a business in someone’s private space without getting permission from the owner.

 He said they had also realised that some people operated businesses in parking lots and road reserves thus increasing risks of accidents.

Entrepreneurs were sensitised on different licenses offered by the council. ENDS