Tongaat market traders outraged by 3-day eviction notice for renovations

LONGSTANDING traders at the historic Tongaat Daily Market are struggling with inadequate facilities and security concerns after being given just three days' notice to vacate for renovations.

- MONISHKA GOVENDER

With the busy December period approaching, traders with decades of history at the market are questioning both the timing and the eThekwini Municipality's handling of the relocation.

The stallholders said they were not opposed to the renovation but the abrupt eviction, lack of communication and inadequate temporary facilities which had left their businesses and livelihoods in disarray.

Viresh Rampurtab, a fruit and vegetable trader, from Plane Street, who has worked at the market for 31 years, said his family began trading there in 1977.

He said the municipality first informed the traders about the renovations in 2023 and said at the time that it would begin “shortly,” but nothing had happened until the officials returned to the market last month — almost two years later.

“We were told that the renovations would begin back then. The municipality came to us in 2023 and said the project would start shortly but they never did. They only came to us last week on November 26, two years after they initially approached us.