As Majoro pays them a visit
Ntsoaki Motaung
Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro indicated that the Minister of Small Business Development and Cooperatives Thesele ‘Maseribane as well as the Minister of Local Government and Chieftainship Affairs Tsoinyane Rapapa will return to the street vendors around the Thetsane area in Maseru with positive feedback in a fortnight.
This he said in response to the vendors’ grievances following last year’s demolition of their sharks by the Maseru City Council for allegedly being misplaced in the Council’s non-trade area.
“The plan that the ministers are going to come up with will spread to the rest of the country. Thetsane area will only be used as a pilot area and later the plan will be rolled-out to the rest of the country. Street vendors have always been asking to be helped with proper shelters for their businesses as well as proper sanitation at their working places. I hope the plan my ministers are going to come up with will answer all that,†he said.
Meanwhile, Town Clerk Moeko Maboee stated that the situation involving the Thetsane street vendors was being attended by holding regular meeting with them in order to know their needs in order to duly develop relevant solutions, adding that the Council has begun collecting details of those whose property was destroyed as well as information regarding the intensity of the destruction.
Speaking on the behalf the street vendors, ‘Matsebo Koakoa indicated that, since last year when their shelters were destroyed they had been told that same had happened because they had erected undeserving structures (iron sharks) for that area, and that since the incident, they have struggled to eke out a living.
“Majority of the people working here sell food. Since the Maseru City Council came to destroy our sharks we have not been able to come and cook. That means we have been starving with our kids at home. We do not even have an idea of how we are going to pay for their schools. We plead with the government to attend to this quickly because when that unpalatable incident took place, we had been told that it would be resolved within three days but it has been months,†she said.
The visit was also attended by Rapapa and ‘Maseribane.
