Paradise Road Intersection a Haven for Hawkers

RUSCHKA MASOET reports on the issue of illegal vending at traffic intersections in the Newlands area and considers the softer side of the ethical debate.

Vending at traffic intersections is an issue that affects motorists in Cape Town on a daily basis. While vendors might flout the law, they do show entrepreneurial spirit in spite of much adversity.

Vending within five metres of traffic intersections is criminalised in terms of the National Road Traffic Act, however several traffic  intersections are known as vending ‘hot-spots’, used by as many as ten traders at times.

The intersection of Paradise Road and the M3 at Newlands Avenue is one such ‘hot-spot’. Despite clear signs designating the junction as a no-trading zone, vendors ply items ranging from cell phone chargers and rugby paraphernalia to original works of art.

Ward Councillor for the area, Ian Iversen stated that illegal vending at the Paradise Road intersection was not particular to that area, but occurred throughout South Africa as a direct result of the economic situation in the country.

Iversen emphasised that vendors occupied the intersection because people were willing to buy things from them, ‘…the bottom line is that traders occupy the Paradise Road site because motorists purchase their goods. If they stopped supporting them then the traders would disappear!’

While acknowledging that vendors were simply trying to ‘eke out a living’, Iversen noted that even police raids were not successful in deterring the vendors who ‘leave the area for at best a day before they return.’

‘The law is there for a reason and I cannot understand why it isn’t enforced… the police try from time to time to  clear the area but hours later they appear again,’ commented Sally Hannath, who lived  near the intersection for ten years and formed part of the security team in the area.

Michael Dhlamini, aged 30, is a qualified electrician who depends on the profits from the sale of his beaded artwork to support himself and his family in Zimbabwe. Having moved to Cape Town because of the political situation in his home country, Dhlamini has spent four of his twelve years in Cape Town selling art along the M3.

 After becoming despondent about finding work as an electrician, Dhlamini decided to sell art, ‘I am selling because I cannot find work here because of my papers. There’s nothing, the people have kindness but if you don’t have citizenship or asylum it’s hard…  I gave up looking for work,’ said Dhlamini. Recounting the consequences of a police raid at the site, Dhlamini said, ‘The police always take our stuff every time, it’s difficult. They take our stuff, they check our papers and sometimes they take you, they lock you up Fridays and only release you on Monday.’

These vendors are in a situation where the need to produce an income overrides the risk involved in breaking the law. Is this show of entrepreneurial spirit not worth commending? Perhaps we should legalise vending at traffic intersections so that there can be a measure of control and regulation over trade in the area. After all, the vendors are not begging or resorting to crime, but simply trying to earn a living.

Conversing in African with Nadine Angel Cloete

Film is her preferred medium of activism. Issues of identity and social issues are her focus, and tapping into the shared African experience is her dream. Nadine Angel Cloete shares coffee with Ruschka Masoet and invites us to join the African conversation.

 

‘I have no plan-B,’ says Nadine confidently. ‘...If I had to choose something I would probably be a social worker because I like helping people’. It’s 15:45, and while drinking coffee at a busy café in Rondebosch I discover the motivation behind Nadine’s love for producing documentary films; she likes helping people.  

This independent film-maker boasts an honours degree in film from UCT, and her show reel includes winning first prize at a national film festival for her first film ‘Roses’ (produced while at high school), scooping up the first prize at an international human rights film festival for ‘Miseducation’, and earning high acclaim at the Encounters Documentary Film Festival for her honours doccie, ‘Maak it Aan’. Now, with work having been screened across the country and abroad, Nadine is embarking upon an ambitious project that documents the life of struggle icon, Ashley Kriel.

‘...I saw footage of Ashley Kriel and always wondered who the man was behind the raised fist in the air... we tell the story of who he was and what motivated him in life.’ Nadine explained what inspired her to tell the story of slain ANC youth leader, Ashley Kriel. She went on to elaborate that in his case the story of his murder was well-known, so she wanted to focus on the man behind the story, instead of the story itself as the subject of her latest film activism project.

Sharing an anecdote of her time in Egypt during the Jasmine Revolution, Nadine said that she had connected with Arabic films that she had viewed in Egypt despite the language divide because she could relate to the feeling and motivation of the characters that drove the action on screen. Film is capable of transcending traditional barriers of language and culture because of the shared experience of being human in Africa and being able to relate your story to the benefit of yourself and others. 

‘I am a pan-africanist, I want my stories to cater to Africa first and then to the rest of the world.’ Nadine then purposefully adjusted her black knitted beret and related that she hoped that more people would identify as African before everything else, and so enter into a dialogue with the common experience of their African cousins instead of coveting everything from ‘Western’ culture.

For every negative shot of Africa that screens overseas, there are hundreds more positive shots waiting to be captured by someone willing to tell the whole story of the African experience. Nadine uses her films to tell that story.  As a pan-africanist documentary film maker, she uses her career to drive change within society. In her experience, ‘...film gives you a voice, it gives you a platform to express yourself, and film is a form of activism, a fight against injustice.’ 

Nadine Angel Cloete is using her art to fire up an alternate African conversation, one that transcends boundaries and inspires interconnectivity.

* View Nadine's doccie, 'Miseducation', online here.