The International Commonwealth Day celebrated on the 14th March 2011 at Johannesburg City Hall, which was organized by Gauteng Legislature to honour and acknowledge the role of women as agents of change, helped to surface the violation of the rights of informal traders.
Previously, women informal traders have made submissions to the office of the Premier of Gauteng and various government departments complaining about the manner in which they are treated as traders. Amongst others, they lamented that there have been incidents of harassments, discrimination and assaults of women traders at their trading stalls. Some of the perpetrators use culture to abuse women traders and children. Most importantly, they demanded a stop to law enforcement with immediate effect. In addition, they argued that women traders should be included in the formulation of policies, including the street-by laws. This, they believe will give them opportunity to influence decision making processes particularly on issues affecting their day to day activities.
According to the Speaker of Gauteng Legislature, who is also the President of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Ms Lindiwe Maseko the focus of celebrating the International Commonwealth Day in 2011 was to honour women informal traders as agents of change in society. Ms Maseko said the initiative of honouring and working with women informal traders was in-line with President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address in which he declared that 2011 should be a year of job creation. She emphasized that Gauteng Legislature was not able to create jobs directly and therefore would only provide opportunities and help protect the rights of those who create their own jobs like informal traders.
“In his State of the Nation Address, President Zuma promised that government will support small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). The Premier of Gauteng also stressed that 130 000 permanent jobs and 175 jobs (in the Expanded Public Works Programme) would be created. We are interested in exploring ways in which we can work with big business, other development agencies and organisations to support informal traders. We are looking at the possibility of capacitating women traders on information computer training. Our view is that women have previously been disadvantaged and therefore should be given preference,” the Speaker further elaborated.
When afforded platform to speak during the questions and discussion segment, informal traders left no stone unturned. One woman trader hinted that organizing a workshop with informal traders post the 2010 World Cup was a futile exercise because many of the informal traders were either evicted or barred from trading in their sites during the tournament. “The current democratic regime allow for the use of the same draconian by-laws implemented during the apartheid government era. For instance, metro police constantly come to impound my stock where I trade. The worst part is that it is unlikely for me to claim back my stock because most of the time some metro police go as far as eating my stock immediately after they have impound it. When I confront them about this, they tell me that I can’t do them anything,” lament a woman trader from Bree Mall.
In responding to the questions and concerns raised by the informal traders, Deputy Chief Whip of Gauteng Legislature and also a Commonwealth Parliamentary Branch Chairperson, Ms Jacqueline Mofokeng explained that the purpose for the meeting with informal traders was not only to honour and acknowledge them as agents of change but also expose them to opportunities of public participation processes and the operation of Gauteng Legislature.
Ms Mofokeng Elaborated: “It is not an oversight that you are not in the programme as speakers. We first heard of challenges in your sector from the Gauteng Department of Economic Development and immediately engaged researchers to provide us with information. After we studied the feedback from our researchers and what we are hearing here today, we are more than convinced that indeed there is need to convene another meeting where we will invite relevant authorities such as MEC for Finance, MEC for Safety and Security, MEC for Agriculture and MEC for Economic Development. As Gauteng Legislature we believe that your sector should be supported and that in the past you were disadvantaged. You have the right to approach the legislature if your feel that your rights are violated. I have heard many of you repeatedly complaining about the harassment by metro police. We have a Petition Unit that can help you write petition to demand that metro police should stop to confiscate the stock of informal traders until a meeting between the informal traders, government departments and institutions managing informal trading and representatives from Legislature have been convened”.
The commitment made by the Gauteng Legislature in intervening on issues raised by women traders and informal traders in general is welcomed news in a month marking human rights, International women’s Day and International Commonwealth’s Day commemorations. This is also a positive response that women informal traders have been waiting for. We can only hope that this engagement between informal traders and authorities at legislature is not the last because for many a time the traders were never afforded chance to inputs into policy making processes and by-laws that governs their sector.
Not only did they write a petition to the office of the Premier of Gauteng and other government departments. During last year’s 16 Days of Activism against the Abuse of Women and Children campaign, women informal traders partnered with the Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation (ESSET) and Genderlinks to embark on awareness campaign to highlight the violations of their human rights and endeavoured to restore their dignity.
