Promised cash incentive for hawkers paid after paper’s expose

MARBLE HALL – Following the paper’s expose on livid hawkers in Marble Hall after a workshop they attended for two days recently and promised they would be incentivized with a cash amount of R3000 to attend, the paper has reliably learned that the latter were paid the said amount last week.

Earlier Last week, the hawkers complained that they wasted two days attending the workshop organized by Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality but ran by a private group when they could have been trading and earning a living on the streets.

Then, the group complained that they were promised a cash incentive of between R3000 and R3 500 each for attending the workshop and were given bank cards.

They said that when they went to access the money they were promised at the bank with those cards, there was no money available.

On Monday, the paper was informed that the cash incentive they were promised was paid into the bank accounts.

Last week, the angry hawkers were livid that no one from the local municipality bothered to explain to them why there was no money in those accounts as promised.

At the time, Seun Mogotji, a community leader, said one couldn’t help but wondered how much money was paid to the group to run the two-day workshop and why were the poor hawkers and street vendors lied to about being paid to be part of the workshop.

Mogotji asked if that could have been another way to “loot the municipal coffers one last time before they vacate the office?”

This week, Mogotji thanked the paper for running the story which he believed helped the hawkers to get paid what they were promised to attend the workshop.

Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality confirmed that the workshop took place and was held with W&R SEDA. The local municipality promised to send more information clarifying some issues on the matter last week but did not until Wednesday, 29 September at the time of going to press.