Meat-stall owners from Embengweni block relocate shack dwellers from erecting new shacks

• Meat-stall owners from Embengweni in Town Two vowed they won’t allow people from the area’s SST informal settlement to erect their shacks near their stalls, for fear of bringing criminals and causing a stink.
• Scores of shack dwellers from SST were relocated to that area by their ward councillor on Sunday 18 February.
• The meat-stall owners came out in numbers and blocked SST residents from offloading their material on the site.

Meat-stall owners from Embengweni in Town Two vowed they won’t allow people from the area’s SST informal settlement to erect their shacks near their stalls, for fear of bringing criminals and causing a stink. 

This came after scores of shack dwellers from SST were relocated to that area by their ward councillor on Sunday 18 February. The meat-stall owners came out in numbers and blocked SST residents from offloading their material on the site. At least 38 shack dwellers were expected to be relocated to the area to pave the way for the City to fix the sewerage system at SST.  

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of harassment, one of the meat-stall owners said they won’t allow people to build shacks near their businesses without their consent. She said they felt disrespected by the councillor for not consulting them before relocating them. 

“Councillor should have informed us about his plans beforehand,” she asked. “We can’t just see people occupying this space without knowing. Imagine there will be stinking Mshengu (temporary toilets), and people are peeing everywhere while we are selling food on the other side. Who is going to come and buy from us? Over our dead bodies will anybody erect a shack here.” 

An open space where the shack dwellers from SST were supposed to build their shacks.

Ward 93 councillor Thando Pimpi said, on Monday 19 February, to assess his next move he was going to have a meeting with the SST residents on Tuesday 20 February.  

“The residents had to go back to SST because the meat-stall owners didn’t allow them to build their shacks,” he said. “I’m confused because most of the meat stall owners are not from this ward. They are there for business. But we had to calm down to avoid commotion.” 

Pimpi said he was not quite sure when they were going to relocate the shack dwellers again.