WINDHOEK – About 94 street vendors who ply their trade from the riverbed at Stop n’ Shop in Okuryangava have appealed to the Windhoek Municipality to expand Tukondjeni open market. They say the expansion would enable street vendors to have decent selling space, and not operate in the riverbed.
The vendors were relocated to the open space in the riverbed by the City of Windhoek from the pavement and open spaces of the Namica Shopping Centre in Okuryangava. The municipality had found that vendors block the walkway pavements and block shop entrances with their merchandise.
The vendors are not happy with the place they have been assigned. “ We do not have water, toilets and shelter here. We normally get water from the Tukondjeni open market but now those people refused us water, but it is the municipality who moved us here,” said the committee member of the vendors Annasitasia Kampungu.
The municipality had also cited problems of hygiene, as well as pedestrians and vehicles occupying the street, causing traffic problems, as a result of vendors occupying street pavements.
The Communication and Marketing Manager at the Windhoek Municipality Joshua Amukugo said the municipality has already identified a place where they can relocate these vendors. He also said a number of other vendors have already been moved to different informal markets where they are operating from. However, the vendors said that they do not want to move elsewhere because they will not get more customers there as they do from the place where they are operating from.
Amukugo however said that the municipality is busy negotiating with the vendor’s team leader to relocate them to the place near the service station at Stop n Shop.
Kampungu said most of the vendors are selling fresh tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. They get them from Noordoewer, Tsumeb and Grootfontein.
By Loide Jason