By Mia Anthony
Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill yesterday met with vendors who ply their trade along the seawall between Camp Road and Vlissengen Road and he told them that those with a permit will continue to vend as long as they are in compliance with the vending agreement.
The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 2 pm got underway at 3:50 pm. When the minister arrived he apologized for his lateness as he had been on a flight.
He immediately began to inform the vendors of the plans in place for the seawall. He said “every person who would have received a permit from the sea defence board to vend on the seawall will continue, “contrary to the misinformation that was being peddled by a few sources, everyone that has a licence that is in compliance with the “mobile rule” will remain, he declared.
“What we are doing is that everybody that got a licence…Your licence or letter of permit told you the conditions under which you must vend”, he said. The minister questioned the vendors on the conditions to which he then answered “no permanent structures and number two your vending space should be no more than a hundred square feet”. He then reminded the vendors that they should be fifteen feet away from the edge of the road along and are required to clean up after they have finished selling. They must also ensure that their structures are “aesthetically pleasing”.
Edghill said that persons started vending in undesignated areas and as such they were cleared “because of what was transpiring we could not have allowed it”. He continued “you would have seen concrete structures remaining after we would have moved those persons”. The minister explained that those persons who were vending in that area were told that arrangements were being made to have them fit in so that they would be able to remain in business, however he reminded the vendors that they need to reasonable and rational “this is a sea and river defence reserve, at any time something can happen and we need access”.
On the latrines issue he told the vendors that the sea and river defence board (SRDB) removed “20 pit latrines”. This resulted in the vendors challenging Edghill’s statement.
“we want you to vend you will continue to vend because every person who wrote the SRDB with an indication to vend, that permission was granted to you and it stated all the conditions and you said yes…we are simply saying let’s get back to those conditions and let’s be orderly”.
He dispelled allegations that the government is displacing vendors and “putting in friends and family” he said “I am telling you… you will remain to vend”.
This caused another outburst from the vendors at which point Edghill threatened to leave if they continued.
He called the claims of persons being removed to facilitate the planned Qatari hotel “propaganda”. He said “all that we are doing is getting persons to comply with the terms and conditions of their permit”. He added: “we could jump high we could jump low the law is the law, vending will continue on the seawall…lawlessness will not continue”.
One vendor asked about a bin for their waste. Edghill took her suggestion as a note to have a bigger bin provided to the vendors after they had completed their daily trade. “We pay the cleaners from Pegasus to Ogle, we have nine contractors we pay on a daily basis to keep the seawall clean”.
Stabroek News spoke with a few vendors before the meeting, who shared the daily struggles they face. “Right now we feel stressed we don’t know what we going to do tomorrow. This (vending) is the last thing I pick up for the past ten years and now to have to start over again or create a new hustle again I am comfortable in the situation I done been in all these years”, one said.
Another vendor nearing tears questioned “what are we going to do? This is all I am depending on”. She lamented that she is solely dependent on her “hustle” as a single mother to provide for her family. “We are poor people out here struggling for our daily bread what they want us to do. We have been cleaning here, pleading with them what they want?” She vehemently questioned the “One Guyana” rhetoric asking “what people are there for?” She continued “they say the country is developing by oil where the oil money going we not getting nothing”. She said there are few jobs and as such the vendors resorted to creating jobs for themselves.
A vendor who was displaced at her previous spot where the bandstand is now located shared her thoughts. “I am one of the vendors that they moved when we were vending at the area near the bandstand. We were removed and asked to go down to Rabbit Walk for a while. We were removed to go beyond Camp Street for them to do infrastructural work…now when they finished that area we heard that long before that we would not get back that area and we bear witness to see we never get back there now. Mortgage to pay…bills to pay, Courts to pay and children to send to school what are you doing to …people”, she questioned?
