GEORGETOWN – The Vreed-en-Hoop junction vendors have been thrown an unexpected lifeline just weeks before Christmas, after a tangle of mixed messages, sudden eviction orders, and mounting public anger forced authorities to backtrack.
What began as an ordinary Monday quickly spiralled into panic on November 5, when vendors were slapped with three-day notices from the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) ordering them to pack up and vacate the busy junction. What followed, vendors say, was a bewildering runaround that left them feeling abandoned.
One vendor, speaking during a live APNU broadcast, described the chaos as nothing short of surreal. “I was shocked when I got the notice. The next morning, I saw the girl from the NDC and asked her why. She said she didn’t know, that we had to go to Town or Region,” the vendor recounted.
“We go to Region, they don’t know. They say go to Town. When we go to Town… some vendors said when they went to Mr. Edghill’s office, he was right there hiding. Since they gave me this notice, we went on TV, we went in the papers, and nobody came to talk to us.”
For days, vendors were left twisting in the wind, unsure whose orders they were being forced to obey. The NDC distanced itself from the eviction, and appeals to the relevant ministry went unanswered. Only after repeated complaints and growing public criticism did officials meet with the vendors, and finally deliver the news they had been begging to hear: they can continue selling throughout the festive season.
Region Three Chairman Sheik Ayube confirmed what vendors had suspected all along, the NDC never issued the instruction. “It’s not the NDC, it’s Public Works,” he said pointedly.
For now, the vendors get to keep their stalls, their income, and their Christmas season. But the confusion, finger-pointing, and silence from key officials have left many wondering whether the reprieve is a fix, or just another temporary pause in a long-running battle over the junction.
