Cape Town – Metrorail security guards are accused of burning down about 50 hawker stalls at the Khayelitsha railway station in Cape Town, it was reported on Friday.

The Cape Argus reported that Metrorail had not denied responsibility for burning the stalls.

“Traders were requested to remove their belongings from the site. Any confiscated items may be reclaimed after payment of the requisite fine. Remaining rubble and waste was burnt,” Metrorail regional manager Mthuthuzeli Swartz told the newspaper.

Trading illegally

He said the hawkers had been trading illegally on “railway property”.

The lack of formal trading amenities had led to excessive littering, had posed a health hazard and had become an “additional financial burden”.

“We will continue to remove unlawful traders from trains and stations, but always in compliance with the law,” he said.

Hawker Christina Mafenuka, 50, told The Cape Argus her sales of fruit, sweets and chips at the station in the past 23 years had helped her support her entire family and send her two children to university.

She said the hawkers met with Metrorail last year when it was agreed they could trade along a single line so commuters could easily walk past.

“We did that. If they saw that we were not following the agreement they should have come to us.”

– SAPA