An affected group of displaced informal craft traders challenged the validity of their eviction from an area in Stellenbosch that they have traded upon for the past 18 years. They were evicted on the 16 January and were still looking for a place to trade and earn a decent living. Having been evicted during February of this year by the local municipality who were acting on complaints from a local church, these hapless traders were promised alternative trading sites by the municipality but have until now not been successful in attaining them.

The traders as a last resort decided to return to their original site this Tuesday, 11 June 2013, and set up their stalls in the face of imminent and expected repercussions from the local authority.

They take this extreme step not only because they need as a matter of survival to trade, but to highlight the insensitivity and less than desirable attitude of the municipality to the seriousness of their plight.

The law enforcement had arrived and fined the traders present R800 per person. Frustrated, they said that this process is taking to long and how are they supposed to support their families.

The Western Cape Informal Traders Coalition will be liaising with the municipality to attempt to get them to allocate space for these traders who just want to provide for their families and in the meantime who do not have any source of income.