New plan for informal traders
Informal traders in Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton, have welcomed a City proposal to provide them with more bays to sell from.
The proposal is part of the revised informal trading plan for Ward 4. The draft plan is out for public comment until Friday September 30.
The City says the new plan will create more economic opportunities in the area.
The current plan, which dates back to 2015, provides 20 designated bays for traders, whereas the new one will provide more than 60, according to mayoral committee member for economic growth James Vos.
The bays will be spread across Ward 4, which comprises Joe Slovo Park, Phoenix, Montague Gardens, Summer Greens, Sunset Beach, Marconi Beam and Milnerton Ridge.
According to ward councillor Anthony Benadie, the new plan will formalise and regulate informal trading in the ward by describing the types of trading and where it can happen.
Traders will set up their stalls within the square bays painted on the ground.
“The bays will be numbered and permits will be allocated to a specific bay, which means traders will only be allowed to trade in their allocated bays,” said Mr Benadie.
In Phoenix, there will 32 bays, including 20 on the corner of Democracy Way and Atlas Drive, six on the corner of Freedom Way and Pluto Close, five on the corner of Freedom Way and Venus Avenue, and one on the corner of Pisces Road and Milky Way Drive.
In Joe Slovo Park, there will be five bays on the corner of Freedom Way and Kiwu Street.
Seven more bays will be allocated to traders in Marconi Beam. Three of them will be on the corner of Democracy Way and Platinum Crescent. Another three will be on Freedom Way, and one will be on the corner of Baker Street and Printers Way.
Another 21 bays will be spread out in Montague Gardens, most of them on Railway and Station roads and some on Montague Drive.
Traders will also be allocated two bays in front of the Milnerton Traffic Department, while two more bays will be on Pienaar Road.
Setty Mangadza, a fruit-and-veg seller from Phoenix, welcomed the City’s proposal to allocate trading bays in Phoenix.
Ms Mangadza said she had sold fruit and veg on Freedom Way for almost a decade and she woke up at 4am daily to go to the market to buy her stock.
Her earnings, she said, had helped to put her granddaughter through university in her home country of Zimbabwe.
According to Mr Vos, the new plan is awaiting approval by the full council. Traders will then need to register on the City’s database to be allocated a bay.
Mr Benadie said the traders would need to describe their business before getting a trading permit, at no cost to them for now.
