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Botswana: Vendors Jittery After Mysterious Registration
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
14 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Gale Ngakane
Francistown
F Francistown street vendors are having sleepless nights after they were called to the city council to register their businesses anew on Tuesday.
Hundreds of vendors who occupy nearly every square metre of the city thronged the town hall armed with their hawkers' licences and Identity Cards (Omang) where they were asked questions during the registration exercise.
What made them more apprehensive was the fact that they did not know why they were being called to register their businesses. "They asked us questions like 'where do you operate your business from' and 'who put you there?'" I hope they will not start harassing us because some of us have got no other way to make a living," said Granny Maseko, who sells sweets and cigarettes at the bus rank. A Zezuru woman who declined to be named said her heart skipped a beat when she was asked who had authorised her to operate from where she does at the bus rank.
"The woman who was registering me even asked if I knew that they could come and confiscate my goods any time. I told her there was nothing I could do about it. Afterall, this is their land. They can do as they please with us," said the elderly Zezuru woman. All the vendors Mmegi spoke to were in the dark as to the reason behind the registration exercise, but one of them hazarded a guess that perhaps the authorities wanted to check their licences. "Most of the people who actually have hawkers' licences, which do not exactly allow them to sit at a fixed spot or place but to walk about. I don't think many people have vending licences.
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"They seem to be issued corruptly," said a vendor who preferred anonymity. Unconfirmed reports that the Francistown City Council wanted to remove some vendors from the city centre to a space adjacent to Naledi Motors opposite the Nzano Shopping Centre have been doing the rounds lately. Mmegi could not ascertain the reports with the town clerk, who only spoke through his secretary when we paid him a visit at his office to find out what was behind the massive registration exercise. Speaking through his secretary, the town clerk said it was routine and nothing to write home about.
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| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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