Okakarara traders want street back

Nearly 50 street vendors at Okakarara last week expressed anger against their local authority leadership for removing them from John Tjikua Street where they operated from for many years before the outbreak of Covid-19.The vendors said there is no business at the Okakarara Trade Fair Centre where the local authority relocated them to on 4 May.“My kapana business is hurt and it is a struggle now to feed my five children with this poor business I am going through here,” said Manase Tjirimuje.The 36-year-old Tjirimuje said he has been selling kapana for the past five years along John Tjikua Street and life was good for him there.“But now with the Covid-19 regulations where street vendors at Okakarara only operate in a fenced-off area at the trade fair centre, it is hard for us to survive as most weeks we go home with nothing,” Tjirimuje said.Another vendor, Agatha Rijaua, 46, said in the streets she would make N$300 a day, but now at the trade fair centre she makes less than NS50.“Our leaders must listen to us. We cannot survive here where they brought us. Business in the streets was really good for me before this pandemic,” she said.‘Miserable place’Lucinda Samba, 32, said her onions, potatoes and tomatoes are rotting daily as her usual customers do not come to the trade fair centre.“This is a miserable place far from my customers. I have to go back to the streets,” she said.The chief executive officer of the Okakarara town council, Ernst Katjiku, said the authority decided to relocate the 100 street vendors in order to be able to control people’s movements in and out of the trade fair centre.He said the town has no public market to accommodate the street vendors.“At the trade fair centre the customers and vendors themselves have access to taps for washing their hands and a huge space for social distancing, for me that is for their own good,” said Katjiku.The CEO said for health and safety reasons amidst Covid-19, for now the council has no plans to allow the vendors back to John Tjikua Street. - Nampa

Okakarara traders want street back

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-10

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Okakarara traders want street back

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-10

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