[ 2011-04-15 ]

We will surely come back again; Hawkers tell AMA
Hawkers, who were recently sent off the streets in
the Accra Metropolis, have said that they would
definitely be back on the streets to sell saying
politicians would bring them back when it gets to
election time.

"After gaining power, they now think we should
leave the streets; another election will come and
they will be quiet when they see us there," some
said.

They said ever since they left the streets, sales
had been slow and poor, making it difficult for
them to get their daily bread.

The hawkers said this when Ghana News Agency went
to find out from some of them how they fared after
they had been sacked from the streets.

They said "the idea of sacking us from the streets
has not favoured us at all. We hardly get our
daily bread and we do not know when it will be
well with us."

Some said getting sacked was a ploy the AMA was
using to collect levies or taxes from them because
those who had the chance to sell at the lorry
stations were being asked to buy tickets that
would permit them to sell.

They said they were told that the levies were
being collected to ensure development and
cleanliness at the stations.

"If it is the levies you want us to pay, then
allow us to sell at where we can easily make money
so that we can get some to pay. Do not sack us.
Now we have to be paying 50Gp daily before we can
sell at the station. Meanwhile, our sales are low"
they said.

Afia Agyeiwaa, a "P.K" and toffee seller at the
Neoplan station, said she could not bare the low
sales she was making a day after being forced to
leave the streets for fear of being arrested
adding, "I and some of my colleagues have planned
to return to the streets where we can make good
sales."

"We are surely going back onto the streets to
sell; we cannot cope with the low sales here. Some
of us have children we take care of. How can I
feed myself and my family with four Ghana cedis a
day?" she said.

A pineapple fruit juice seller, Kyei Gyan, who was
selling on the streets last Saturday, said he had
come to sell because the task force did not work
on weekends and he knew he would not be arrested.

Some other hawkers pleaded with authorities to let
them come back to the streets to sell since they
sold more there.

Source - GNA

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