STREET vendors who travelled more than 340km to Mbombela Stadium have been left frustrated yet again by the ANC event organisers.
The group coming from Gauteng, went to Mpumalanga with the hope that they'll be making a living by selling food to those who will be attending the party’s 112 birthday celebration on Saturday, 13 January.
Instead, they've been told that by 3pm this afternoon, 12 January, they needed to move from the stadium entrance or pay R1 000 each to be allocated a stall where they'll sell their food.
The vendors said the reason they chose to sell outside the stadium was because they don't have the money that the party is requesting.
They told Daily Sun that they had paid R10 000 for transportation and used over R3 000 each to buy their stock.
One of the vendors, Sibusiso Khubeka from Soweto, told Daily Sun that this is frustrating him.
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“We are here not to beg to them, but to make a living so that our children can eat back home. We paid for transport, we bought the food, the only thing we want is to make profit but if they insist that we should pay R1 000, it means we will be left with nothing,” he said.
Speaking on the directive that they needed to have vacated the area, he said they won’t go back home without doing business.
“We feel really bad that they want us to pay when we don’t have that money they are requesting,” she said.
A man who claimed to be part of the ANC event organiser, named Oupa, told Daily Sun that the vendors are lying and all they want to do is to rob the party by making claims that they can’t afford.
“They're robbing the party. They can't travel for over 200 and something kilometres and then claim they don’t have money.
"The ANC rented the stadium with over R2,7 million and we need to recover that amount and that's the reason we said all those wanting to run their business must pay R1 000, while others pay R2 000,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ANC national leadership is expected to brief the media about their readiness to host the event this afternoon.
This is a developing story….
