At the Al-Sawarik Market, located in south Jeddah, there are over 5,000 shops where trading is monopolized by foreigners from South Asia, who control buying and selling in broad daylight. They make up over 90 percent of the businesspeople that operate there.
Two supervisors, who work under the Southern Municipality Division, operate in the area. Each of them relies on his health and walky-talkies to accomplish his mission.
They are both specialized in spying on Saudis and issuing municipal violation tickets to them without prior warning.
The shops pay their rent on a monthly basis. There are no annual contracts and the municipality does not give building licenses for monthly contracts. However, the shop owners, not the people renting the shops, sympathize with people’s circumstances and so allow them to pay on a monthly basis and do not force them to make annual payments.
The two supervisors are very difficult to deal with. They hardly give a person the chance to explain, talk and negotiate. It is far simple to speak to the United Nations’ secretary-general than these two supervisors. They have little respect for anyone.
Just nine percent of shop owners are Saudis and are available inside their shops. The rest of the shops operate illegally. Dear mayor, I suggest you pay a secret visit to the location to see for yourself.
The question remains: What stops the municipality from constructing an office at the market that consists of an employee, supervisor, and an accountant? The office could be housed in a space donated by the shop owners to facilitate the process of supervising, obtaining licenses, receiving complaints and communicating with shops.
We hope the honorable mayor takes some decisions to stop all the unfair violation tickets that have been given to by the two supervisors. We also hope that our mayor asks the head of the municipality division to personally visit the market, ask the people what they need and discipline the two supervisors.
