Swazi Observer

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BUSINESSPEOPLE COUNTING LOSSES AFTER VIOLENT STRIKE

By Bongiwe Dlamini | 2019-10-04

AS the town was literally shut down by public service association (PSAs) on Wednesday, business people suffered the consequences.

From street venders to well-established shops, they were all negatively affected by the PSAs #OperationShutDownManzini that took place on Wednesday as they were forced to close shop in fear of having their property damaged in the process.

Another reason that the business owners decided on closing shop was that when the city’s streets turned into a battlefield, they feared being caught in the crossfire.

This was more so because even a shop situated further away from where the chaos was, the teargas fired by the police on the demonstrators in a bid to disperse them, ended up affecting the people who were not even part of the protest.

Some of the business people who were affected by the protest included the dobha phansi hawkers, who were forced to run for cover when a battle between public transport operators and the police erupted.

According to some of the hawkers who were interviewed yesterday, a few of them started packing their wares as soon as they saw a smaller group of the civil servants heading their way in song and dance. They said while these protesters were at it, they saw police officers following shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, other hawkers are said to have been staring in disbelief as they thought that the protest was held far away from the bus rank. Out of nowhere, it is said teargas was hurled towards the civil servants who had invaded the bus rank.

Bloodcurdling

That is where the situation escalated to being bloodcurdling as the police’s ammunition towards the civil servants angered the public transport operators who felt that their business was being interrupted unnecessarily.

As a result, the transport operators are said to have reiterated by hurling stones back at the police. At this juncture, most of the hawkers are said to have ran towards the belt of their workstation so as not to get caught in the cross fire.

The hawkers said although the fight happened a distance away from them, the police’s teargas truck sprayed the chemical as far as to where the hawkers thought they were hiding. After being exposed to the teargas, the sellers said some tried to lessen the itching effect by running to nearby Mzimnene River where they either dipped their heads or plunged their whole bodies with the hope that the pain would quickly subside.

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