AN IRATE band of clearing and forwarding (c&f) agents has been given overnight marching orders from its established patch alongside the Komatipoort border post between SA and Mozambique.
Told to buzz-off, said one observer of the scene, along with the hawkers and the ladies of the night.
The instruction came from NIDS - the National Interdepartmental Structure (for border control) - executive director Brian van Niekerk. This at a November 15 meeting with the Mayoress of Komatipoort and the Hawkers Association - also representing the on-the-spot c&f agents.
The first gripe was that the clearance date was November 22 - giving those with their temporary Zo-Zo hut quarters no time to disassemble their now established (if flimsy) business homes.
The second, according to SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) executive director Edward Little - to whom protests had been directed at the Komatipoort meeting of the Joint Route Management Committee on November 27 - was that the evicted fowarders were given the impression that their new location was to be at the old airport site.
This would have left them, he told FTW, with no electricity, telephones (apart from cellulars) or water.
Move the few established agents and what are you left with? asked Little. Nothing but the briefcase brigade - who don't know a Jacobsens tariff book from a telephone directory.
While comment on the issue was not forthcoming from the relevant parties, Customs director Gavin Collinet, who stressed that C&E was not involved in the dispute, said: It's all part of a phased plan for upgrading the post and should have all sorts of advantages for everybody once it's finished.
The removal, he added, would only be temporary - with the promise of better facilities on the return.
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