Umm Muhammed Umar

Fordsburg Square was so popular that people would visit it on Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday nights. They would gather for meals and to hunt for bargains. This was the place that people used to go to every weekend, and now does not come up at all when you ask people what they did on the weekend. At one time, Fordsburg Square was THE place to be, where it was difficult to even find a parking space. Radio Islam spoke to Aziz Ali, a social activist, who explained the deterioration of the Fordsburg Square during the last 10 years.

Ali said that people don’t want to come into the area, especially at night, because of the crime. He said that other contributing factors were the filth, the rats and the stench. Ali said sewage was flowing around the area. He said, “Urban Decay! And yet this is a place where fresh food, vegetables, fruit, and food is sold.” He said that the health hazard would just increase if nothing was done. There apparently were reports of R10 million worth of upgrades to the Square underway – uplifting the roof, putting compliance checks in place in terms of the stalls, etc. however, Ali says that if you go into Fordsburg Square you will see that there is no compliance. He said, “We have all these stalls, there’s no walking space between the stalls, if a fire has to break out there will be a stampede because there’s no safety measures in place, and innocent people will get injured.”

According to Ali, food stalls in the Square are non-compliant and do not practice basic hygiene in the handling of food.  He said that those who handle the food do not wear gloves, or cover their hair while serving food. Ali added, “Some of them don’t even have licenses to operate as a retailer.”

There has been a meeting with the local councillor, regarding concerns about the state of the Square. Ali said that they had met last year during the lockdown, but that he still had not seen any compliance thereafter. He said, “the stalls are literally on top of one another. People are dumping on every corner.” He said, “there was a skip on the other street where people were supposed to throw the dirt into, that skip is now removed so now they throw in the dirt on the street corners.”

Ali said that the authorities must be brought in to constantly monitor activity at the Square to ensure compliance. He said that after the local councillor was contacted, he had the JMPD conduct a raid, where stalls were check for compliance and a shop owner was fined illegal dumping. Ali lamented that that, however, had all been ‘fanfare’, saying that because there was no follow up, the situation was once again deplorable.