Letter: Stop eviction of vendors - Business Day

For the past three or four years a pair of women have been setting up shop every day in one of the parking areas of the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens.

They sell placemats and various other handicrafts. They pick up a bit of business from people who have parked their vehicles and are on their way into or out of the gardens.

The women cause no inconvenience of any kind to anyone.

They have now been evicted, for reasons neither they nor the car guards in the parking area understand. The women tell me they have been told they can temporarily sell their wares from the pavement in the street outside the parking area, but this will drastically cut their sales as it is a busy road and motorists will have to stop, whereas the previous site was where people had already parked.

As a self-made man and entrepreneur himself, Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba should please instruct his officials not to stomp on these people.

Major companies are able to use the gardens for concerts, fun runs, walkathons and the like. Why should these women be chased away?

John Kane-Berman
Institute of Race Relations

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/letters/2018-07-25-letter-stop-eviction-of-vendors/