The Western Cape Informal Traders Coalition (WCITC), an amalgamation of street and structured traders markets covering an area from the City centre to Khayalitha, including the area from Muizenberg to Brakenfell, have declared a dispute with the City of Cape Town. In a statement released on Monday, WCITC spokesperson Nkosinathi Paul Jikela said they had requested the City to freeze all evictions of traders and their infrastructures, and desist from "harassing" traders.
"We have begged them in prior meetings and correspondences to follow due process with regard to consultation and negotiation. An extremely contentious issue too is the one around opportunities and continued trading for the period leading up to and during the staging of World Cup 2010. Traders are being threatened with a disruption of trading throughout this period," Jikela said.
According to the coalition, it has attempted to get the city to agree to an urgent meeting, "but our attempts have been largely ignored by an unsympathetic beaurocracy at Civic Centre. We have therefore no option but to stage a legal picket outside the Civic Centre between the hours of 09h00 and 13h00 on Tuesday where we shall attempt to present a memorandum to the Executive Mayor, Mr Dan Plato," Jikela said. VOC |
