A Day In The Shoes Of A Street Vendor

The long row of street hawkers on WF Nkomo Street in the Pretoria CBD are carefully re-organizing their stock for the second time this cold Monday morning hoping that the grey clouds would give way for a much sunnier day.

By: Letlhogonolo Ndhlovu

“ There isn’t  much business when it is raining so we pack up and go back home and that is already a day lost,” said Lilly Sambo whose been selling sunglasses, nail polish, accessories she makes and other commodities as a licensed vendor for the past eight years on WF Nkomo Street.

She giggles as she says that this stall is her husband, “I’m able to take my children to school, buy food and have a roof over my head with the little money I make from sitting here all day.” Street trading is one of the largest informal sectors and Lilly is just another example of black women who make up the majority of street hawkers in South Africa.

Tshwane municipality should realize that we are human and we play an important role in the city

With an estimated number of 4.9 million unemployed South Africans, many are turning to self-employment to get by. “Who is going to give me the R100 I can make in a day if I sit at home waiting for a job?,” enquired Lilly, and yet with the effort she’s taken to uplift herself she complains that the Tshwane municipality is making  it difficult for hawkers to make an honest living.

Vendors pay R165 for a traders licence every month but they still get bullied by metro police who demand bribes, take their stock and completely disrespect them with one metro police officer who went as far as killing Voster Ravambo, a vegetable hawker at Bosman station.

“Tshwane municipality should realize that we are human and we play an important role in the city, tourists love us and we don’t only look out for ourselves in terms of crime, we protect the people passing by and the shops around us while we work,” said Lilly.

Every morning Lilly fetches her merchandise from a room she pays R30 a week to keep her stock safe, assembles her tent alongside other vendors selling similar products who’ve become family to her regardless of the competition and she interacts with different customers all day.

Luckily it only drizzled while we chatted about her days under her tent, so maybe by 6 pm when she dissembles her mobile stall before heading back to the township in Soshanguve she would have made her daily R200 profit.

Read our news headline Street Hawkers Strike Outside City Hall.