Angry hawkers who have been removed from the streets of the Pretoria inner city by metro police gathered outside council headquarters on Thursday, claiming mayor Kgosientso (Sputla) Ramokgopa was the “mayor of nyaope” (a concoction of dagga and heroin).

Their chants were backed by accusations that, while metro police clamped down on street vendors selling mostly fruits and vegetables, drug dealers were allowed to roam free.

Charmaine Makgalathiba, an 18-year-old woman whose aunt, Margaret Makgalathiba, sells nuts on the city’s streets, says she does not feel safe when she walks along Brown Street, because of robbers and drug dealers.

“If selling on the street is illegal, then why are the people selling drugs not stopped as well?” she asked.

We voted for him (Ramokgopa) and now he is drunk on power, Tshwane Informal Traders Forum (TITF) member Shoes Maloka told the crowd of marchers brandishing papers that read, “ANC give back our votes” and “DA is our last hope”.

“There are people selling nyaope in the city until 11 at night and he (Ramokgopa) cannot catch them. But he wants to remove us for selling food. He must be smoking nyaope himself,” he Maloka said.

Ramokgopa was the one sending cops to chase hawkers from the streets, he said.

Juliette Ngobeni, who sells a variety of fruits and snacks on the corner of Thabo Sehume (Andries) and Minnaar streets, spoke of her concern: “They do not want us to sell. And we have to pay for more than one licence to sell in one spot, where there is not even shelter from the rain.”

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