Ejected market vendors picket ministries, City Hall

Jan 07, 2011 News

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– Council to review policy on seasonal vending

By Latoya Giles and Leonard Gildarie

Following a grenade explosion on Wednesday morning that claimed the life of one and left 19 injured at the Stabroek Market Square, scores of vendors yesterday picketed government ministries and City Hall after their stalls were demolished by the authorities.
The City Council did not immediately link the demolition of the stalls, located on the fringes of the parking lot immediately in front of the market, with the explosion.
Almost 300 vendors are said to have been displaced.
As a matter of fact, the vendors being removed were seasonal ones that were only allowed to sell during the recent Christmas shopping, the City Council disclosed yesterday.
However, this was in stark contrast to what the vendors were claiming. Many of them indicated that they had been vending in the Stabroek Market area for more than two decades, and asked that they remain until their stocks are sold and an alternative site at Stelling View, an area behind the Guyana Fire Service, is completed.
Demanding an audience
Yesterday, there was a heavy police presence, with ranks of the City Constabulary and tow trucks highly visible.
Several placard-bearing vendors loudly proclaimed their rights in front of Stabroek Market under the watchful eyes of the police, before moving to the Stelling View.
They then made their way to the Ministry of Labour before moving to the Ministry of Home Affairs on Brickdam. At the Ministry of Home Affairs, the vendors demanded an audience with the minister. However it was unclear if the minister was in office.
The vendors expressed frustration with the abrupt decision to remove them from the location.
Corwin Wright, 42, said he has been selling in the Stabroek area over 20 years but now faces an uncertain future, with nowhere to go.
It was the same thing with Joan Best, 43, a vendor who sells clothes and who claims that she recently paid the Mayor and City Council $14,000 to vend in the area.
Some of the placards even accused the authorities of deliberately using the grenade to get rid of them from the area.
Juliet Barrow said that she has been selling clothes for over 15 years.
“The constables come on Wednesday evening and asked us to dismantle. When we come back this morning, they tell us that we can’t sell until further notice. What we gun do now?”
The vendors insisted that even if the authorities are saying that illegal activities are happening in the Stabroek Market area, they know the “bad eggs”.

“I challenge anyone of them to tell us they don’t know who these people are. We are hardworking people who sell to mind our children.”
According to the vendors, they were being given an alternative site at Stelling View. But construction of the stalls and booths there are still to be completed.
Taking reporters on a visit there, the vendors said that with the City Council claiming that it was broke, they were left to foot the bill to construct their booths.
One vendor said that he spent almost $1.6M on construction but there is still work remaining, with the back fence costing an additional $500,000.
“So tell me, where we gun find the money from if we don’t get to sell?”
Another vendor, Kato Thornhill, a mother of nine, said she has been vending in the area for over 20 years. The woman said she is a single parent and is lost as to what her next move would be since her livelihood has been taken away.
“I really don’t know if the government want I thief….I have to make an honest living because I have children to maintain, bills and loans to repay.”
The woman further told this publication that vendors have complied with every recommendation of the council.
“Last December we paid them $14,000…..for stall rent, now they come and putting us out”.
Minutes later, the large number of vendors proceeded to march towards the office of the Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green.
At City Hall on Regent Street, the vendors requested an audience with the Mayor.
However, he was otherwise engaged, and this newspaper managed to garner a comment from Public Relations Officer Royston King, who made it clear that the exercise to remove itinerant vendors started before the grenade incident, and “seasonal” vendors were well aware that they had until January 5 to remove from the city streets.
He explained that the areas targeted are Stabroek Market, Commerce and America Streets and sections of Regent, King and Robb Streets.
King stressed that the vendors, including those that were removed from the eastern section in front of the Stabroek Market, had agreed to pay a cleansing fee to the City Council to remove the expected garbage buildup.
“They agreed to the cleansing fee, because they would be in the area and the council would have to get extra trucks to remove the garbage pile-up which would occur since they inhabit the area,” King stated.
He said that the grenade incident on Wednesday only served to spur the City Council to speed up the clearing exercise.
The official also noted that the City Council is not mandated to find alternative spots for the vendors. Regarding Stelling View, King said spots there are for some businesses which have already started to operate.
According to King, the City Council will more than likely now be reviewing its policies of allowing itinerant vendors to sell around the Christmas season.
As regards the Council losing money by the removal of the itinerant vendors, he noted that fees collected are merely for garbage removal and with no garbage, the hiring of trucks on a regular basis would be unnecessary.
Illegal activities
Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, at a hastily arranged press conference at his office Wednesday night, said that some people might be cynical and point out that the administration had to wait for something like this (grenade explosion) to happen before decisive action is taken.
“It’s not that nothing was being done…From time to time action was being taken to bring some form of order to the area. Now that this has happened, we recognize that people who move around that area…it could put their lives in danger,” the Minister stated emphatically.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene, who was with the minister, however pointed out that with the work being done by the police and other law enforcement agencies in the Stabroek Market area, no firearms have been found there within recent times.
The man whose hand was blown off and face badly disfigured by the explosion might have been a courier for the sale of the explosive device, according to the Police Commissioner.

This is one of the theories that investigators are working on as they probe the circumstances that led to the grisly scene.
Greene revealed that upon examination of the area, it is clear that the device was in the possession of the dead man.
He explained that the man’s arm from the elbow down was blown off, and his face was severely damaged.
Recovering at the Hospital
Meanwhile, most of the injured have since been discharged from the hospital, however, two are said to be nursing serious eye injuries.
Clairon Allen, 30, of Kuru Kuru, Soesdyke Highway, is one of the patients in Eye Care with an injury to the right eye.
Allen underwent emergency surgery on Wednesday after being rushed to the hospital. According to the man, the surgery was done to remove particles from his eyes. Allen, who is a conductor, told Kaieteur News yesterday that Wednesday was just a normal day at work.
He said that he was standing at the corner when he heard a loud explosion. Soon after he felt his eyes were burning and felt something dripping on his clothes. It turned out that he was bleeding from a wound on his face.
Allen said he cannot see from the eye, but doctors have told him it’s too early to determine anything.
Meanwhile Civil Engineer and Environmental Officer Trefa Hinds, of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara is recovering in the Male Surgical Ward.
Hinds told this publication that he was experiencing blurred vision in his left eye. He too underwent surgery. The man told this publication that he was heading to work when the injury occurred.
Hinds said he heard the explosion but did not pay attention to it. It was not until he felt the blood; he realized that something was wrong.
He immediately rushed to the hospital, where relatives greeted him.
This newspaper has been told that all the other injured persons have all been discharged from the hospital.

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