“Right now there are people who are operating using the licences for council employees and they have not been evicted. Why can’t we be treated equally,” wondered Eunice Chirungwa, who has been a hawker for 16 years. Chirunga said they are tired of the FCC’s tendency of tossing them around. She was annoyed by the fact that by-law officers confiscated their goods during the night. “When we arrived on Tuesday morning, our chairs and tables were nowhere to be found. We learnt later that they have been dumped at the landfill.” Another hawker, Cecilia Burungu said they would strike if that is what it takes for their cries to be heard. “These people do not understand the hardships that we endure,” she said.
Burungu said she was not amused by the fact that the FCC confiscated their goods during the night. “They have something to hide. Why didn’t they do it during the day, when we could all see them?”
The completion of the new bus rank is said to have bred all the problems faced by the hawkers. “Ever since the opening of the new rank, things have never been right,” a hawker, Agnes Ncube said.
Hawkers argued that they never received any warning from the council. “We were surprised to find that our chairs and tables have been taken to the landfill. They came on Monday night to dismantle our property,” said Mpho Modise who had been hawking for a week before the by-law officers confiscated her wares. “I have been operating a phone business in Tutume and came over here for greener pastures. As you can see, I have just bought a new table, but it is not as durable as the one which they have taken away.”
The eviction follows the expiry of a lease, which the FCC had signed with the Tati Company and a chain store - Shoprite.
Most of the hawkers were surprised to hear that Shoprite wants them to be evicted when they are so loyal to the supermarket. “We buy all our stock from them and I don’t believe they can do such a thing,” a hawker said. Though the by-law officers who were at the scene claimed to be evicting hawkers at the request of Shoprite, the management denied knowledge of the eviction. “I am not aware of the eviction taking place. That’s solely the council’s responsibility. We are only renting the building and have not raised any complaints,” said the Assistant Manager of Shoprite, Uyapo Baganetswe.
Onlookers did not miss an opportunity to mock or show sympathy with the hawkers. “That’s domkrag, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party. It’s pay back time,” commented one taxi driver, mockingly.
Hawkers said they have taken their complaints to the Member of Parliament for Francistown East, Phandu Skelemani. But the MPs office administrator, Anthony Chebane, referred them to the FCC.
The acting deputy Town Clerk, Steven Chavula confirmed that they confiscated some of the properties of the hawkers. He denied that the FCC has dumped the hawkers’ properties at the landfill. “We knew they were going to come over, so we kept them safely.” Chavula said the land which the hawkers were operating from, belongs to Tati Company and Shoprite and was leased to the FCC while the new bus terminus was still under construction. “Now that the bus rank is complete, we have been told to move out of the land as the owners want to develop it.” Chavula said the hawkers should have long vacated the place around November and December last year. The final deadline was January 31. The FCC risked a P1,000 per day charge if the workers overstayed at the site. Though it is not their responsibility to find a market place for the hawkers, Chavula said they are looking at certain places where the hawkers can operate. “We are thinking of an open space near our fire station and Naledi Motors,” he said.
