Debate on the Warwick Junction Debacle
by MB Gwala MPL
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PIETERMARITZBURG: 19th June 2009 Madam Speaker
It must be stated at the outset that the IFP supports every form of urban renewal and particularly local government initiatives aimed at upgrading our cities by modernising infrastructure. While the plans by the eThekwini Council to develop the Warwick Junction street market may appear as an attempt on the part of the local authority to assist traders with proper premises where they can conduct businesses in a hygiene-conscious environment, the story of the Early Morning Market is less straightforward.
Earlier this week, five people sustained injuries when traders in Durban's Warwick Junction clashed with metro police officers as tensions between the traders and the city continued and reached a climax. The traders claimed they were attacked without provocation, while the metro police said they had been forced to fire rubber bullets to contain traders trying to force their way into the market. The eThekwini Council was accused of defying a court order permitting traders access to the market.
The havoc wreaked on the Warwick Junction by the traders and the police was reminiscent of the way the apartheid government used to deal with the inconvenient opponents of policies that were devised and implemented without the slightest consultation with those whom they affected most. This, apparently, is how things are done routinely in the ANC-controlled eThekwini Council under the controversial management of Mike Sutcliffe.
The IFP got a taste of the Council's unique way of doing business when it staged a huge march in protest of the now infamous street-renaming process in Durban not so long ago. Just like the traders of the Early Morning Market, the residents of Durban were never meaningfully consulted about the proposed street names or, for that matter, the rationale behind the costly and cumbersome process.
After all, the trigger-happy eThekwini Council has had its fair share of showdowns with disaffected municipal employees, not least from Remant Alton, a technically insolvent City bus company, that it has helped bring down by its curious "developmental" policies.
This week's shooting of unarmed people at the Warwick Junction was further evidence of the high-handedness which the eThekwini Council appears to resort to whenever its autocratic decisions are challenged by those whom they affect most. It is an indictment of this democratically elected local authority that it never even attempted to resolve this conflict amicably. It is equally telling that the incident occurred only weeks after a general election in which the ANC campaigned on the slogan of "Working together we can do more".
The court order allowing the vendors to continue trading on the Early Morning Market was granted to them on the strength of their argument that the city of Durban had been accepting rent for the stalls even from people who did not have licences and the Council's turnaround on the permit issue was designed to get the better of the traders whose economic activity has suddenly become an obstacle in the way of the municipality's overriding ambition.
The conflict between the eThekwini Council and traders is over a proposed multimillion-rand development of Warwick Junction, which would include a shopping mall. The traders are opposed to relocating to make way for the mall, which they argue would destroy their livelihoods. Many of them have a valid point since those who now own more than one stall would under the proposed scheme only be compensated on an equitable basis with those who would break even in the transaction.
Apart from the worrying inclination towards knee-jerk reactions, the Warwick Junction drama reveals an undemocratic tendency in the eThekwini Council to ignore the wishes of the people whenever these find themselves in conflict with the city's higher interest. The eThekwini Council needs to allow for meaningful consultation with residents, ratepayers and traders and, more importantly, it needs to learn to accommodate their legitimate concerns. The consultative process in the case of the Early Morning Market needs to include Amafa given the market's historical value.
Furthermore, the eThekwini Council needs to ensure that all traders within its jurisdiction are in possession of permits so that they would be provided with an alternative place to do business in case the municipality decides to redevelop their vending premises. On the whole, the municipality's developmental drive, as noble as it may appear to disinterested outsiders, should be directed at making economic activity easier, not at rendering it a criminal offence punishable by law. These are the lessons the Council is to learn from the Warwick Junction saga.
I thank you.
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