By Mbatjiua Ngavirue Informal food vendors in Gobabis are angry at attempts by the municipality to forcibly relocate them to a new site from the one where they have successfully conducted business for years. The self-employed women selling food such as grilled meat, rice, potato salad and fat cakes are unhappy about the proposed move. The council’s plan is to move them from their present site under a large camelthorn tree on the corner of Church and President Streets to the new long-distance taxi rank being built behind the Regional Council buildings. They complain that the municipality never consulted them about the move, although Mayor Platini Katjaoha hotly disputes this. Their main objection to moving to the new long-distance taxi rank is that it is far from the main street in Gobabis. The main street has large volumes of traffic that brings them most of their customers. The women normally close business at 6 or 7 p.m., arguing that by then there will be no customers or taxis going to the long-distance rank. “Who will support our businesses? Here we are close to where most people pass, but there we will have to pay for the place, water and electricity. They are also worried about the fees the municipality might charge them at the new site, saying that so far no one had given them any indication of how much they might have to pay. “On one side, they say they want to help you, but all they are really doing is pressurizing you,” one said. They currently have to sit the whole day until late in the evening to sell N$50 worth of meat, and wonder how they are ever going to sell that meat if they are far from the main traffic. “The one thing they kept mentioning was that we are putting pressure on Spar. We think they are worried we are stealing Spar’s customers,” another woman said. The women said the municipality asked them to put forward three alternative sites where the authorities could relocate them. They maintain, however, that before they could make their proposals, the municipality started building on a site of its own choosing. They said that when they complained to Mayor Katjaoha and Local Economic Development Officer Festus Marenga, they did not receive a sympathetic hearing. “The place is already built, and you can’t continue giving us problems over small things. Rome wasn’t built in a day,” they were allegedly told. Mayor Katjaoha said the main concern of the Town Council was to ensure orderly and organized business activities at the town. “As leaders of this town, we have a responsibility to promote small upcoming businesses, as well as to protect existing ones, whether small or big.” He complained that some of the food vendors illegally removed a fence surrounding the Regional Council complex and were operating within the grounds of the Regional Council. The location from where the women now operate also causes serious traffic problems, with taxis often abruptly turning onto the site from the main street without indicating. Furthermore, according to the Town Development Plan, the site is earmarked for the development of a new by-pass. “We don’t want them to be selling N$50 meat a day for the next 50 years. We want to empower them so that they can reach the next level of business”. The aim was to organize the women selling food into an association to help them grow their businesses. “We know their background, and we have made a commitment to promote and empower them. When it comes to fees, we will take that background into account”. The council further had an obligation to ensure that every business operating at the town should operate within the framework of health regulations. The council’s plans are also consistent with a directive from the Ministry of Regional and Local Government and Housing, directing all local authorities to provide proper facilities for public transporters. The Gobabis Municipality clearly feels it would be killing two birds with one stone by marrying the food vendors and taxi drivers at one centralized site.