• Premier Ramathuba gave 50 Tshalovha Fruit Market hawkers in Venda umbrellas to protect their fruit and vegetables from the sun.

• Chairperson Irene Nemalegeni asked for water once a week from Thulamela Municipality and Mayor Miyelani Chauke promised to address it.

The 50 hawkers at Tshalovha Fruit Market in Venda got umbrellas and a visit from the Premier this week. Their water problem is still not fixed.

The market has supported families for decades. Parents wake early to sell avocados, macadamia nuts, bananas, pawpaws and other fruit and vegetables. Most of the hawkers are women.

On Tuesday afternoon, Limpopo Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba, who is originally from the Venda area, visited them. She came with Economic Development MEC Tshitereke Matibe, Vhembe District Municipality Mayor Miyelani Chauke and other dignitaries.

Ramathuba thanked the traders for being the backbone of the local economy and for working to put food on their families’ tables.

“Through the money that you are making from selling you have raised families and produced professionals such as doctors, engineers and teachers,” she said.

She also praised them for doing something about their situation instead of complaining about the lack of jobs.

She gave the hawkers 50 big umbrellas to protect their fruit and vegetables from the sun. She also bought from every hawker, saying she had taken up their selling time and the least she could do was pay them for it.

Market chairperson Irene Nemalegeni thanked her, then raised the market’s problems.

“We have a challenge when it rains and especially during the floods earlier this year, it was muddy. We also have a problem with water and we ask that we get water from the Thulamela Municipality at least once a week so that we can work well,” she said.

Chauke promised to address the water problem immediately.

The Premier and the dignitaries ended the day by moving from stall to stall, buying from each trader.

In August, Ramathuba spent her birthday with women from Tshakuma Fruit Market in Thohoyandou, where she prepared and served them lunch.