A beautification program of the Nuku'alofa waterfront is taking a bumpy ride while the government vacillates over what to do with the street vendors who have taken over the waterfront side of Hala Vuna to market their products.

The dilemma that the capital is facing now is to either beautify its waterfront or to allow the seafront to remain a squatter zone.

Since August the Ministry of Lands has twice made public announcements for street vendors to clear out from the area to make room for a beautification program, which has begun to landscape the area from the entrance to Vuna Wharf, and working eastward. The Pangai Lahi fountain area is being re-landscaped, and around the bus stop the rusty fences have been replaced with newly planted coral rockery gardens.

Meanwhile, the roadside vendors have extended their stakes, moving westwards from the Saturday market at the wharf, and spreading themselves all the way along the seafront as far as the inoperative Dateline Hotel, where they are now meeting the beautification program head on.

The seafront is public property and it is free, and as it continues to gain popularity some of the vendors have started to camp on the side of the street overnight to claim their spots, including women and children. A few even leave their shelters and tables stacked against the trees over the weekends. Many vendors are subsistence growers coming into town to sell produce, firewood and coconuts.

In August the Ministry of Lands made its first public announcement for the street vendors to move out.

But the announcement provoked a reaction from the vendors and their supporters who presented a petition to the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister then overturned the decision of the Ministry of Lands.

Temporary marketplace

The second attempt to move the vendors away from Hala Vuna was the leasing of a piece of land located next to the residence of the Australian High Commissioner, to be used as a temporary marketplace until a permanent place could be developed.

In a joint endeavour with other ministries it is understood that the Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Tourism contributed $10,000 to clear the plot of land, fill it and fence it in early October. The vendors were supposed to move there this month.

On October 23 the Ministry of Lands made a second public announcement on Radio Tonga, calling on vendors to clear out from the Hala Vuna seafront the following day, Friday October 24.

But by mid morning on Friday the vendors began arriving and taking their spots on the sides of Hala Vuna, believing that they were not doing anything wrong, and that they had a right to be there.

The Ministry of Lands announcement was ignored.

Sorry

At the Ministry of Lands the person who was responsible for the public announcement on Radio Tonga, admitted today that the ministry had withdrawn its public notice. He said that before mid-day on Friday they had also made a public apology for any “inconvenience it had caused to the street vendors”.

He said that the place that they were going to move the vendors to was not ready and the Ministry had not constructed any shelters.

The spokesperson could not answer a query over whether the vendors would be charged to use the government-built shelters and toilet amenities, while the roadside is free and the vendors were using the foreshore and sea.