Report by Cecilia Dube (Women Informal Development Forum)
It is our honour to inform you that Women Informal Development Forum (WITF), a structure representing women informal traders will be picketing and making a submission to the Office of the Deputy Minister of Trade & Industry. The picketing and the making of submission form part of the SADC Informal Traders Campaign against Sexual and Economic Violence, which is aimed at raising awareness of the struggles and human rights violations of informal traders within the SADC countries. As women informal traders in South Africa we are using the 16 Days of Activism against the Abuse of Women and Children to raise awareness about our plight as women and make demands to government about our rights and dignity.
The Picketing and making of Submission event is scheduled as follows:
Date: 9th December 2011
Venue: DTI Offices, 77 Meintjies street, Sunnyside, Pretoria
Time: 12pm
Report by Sipho Thwala (SADC Informal Traders Campaign)
Informal Traders in Gauteng rounded off the year on a high note when they elected the Gauteng Informal Development Forum, a provincial structure representing informal traders in the province.
The leadership of the Gauteng Informal Development Forum are:
Mike More- Chairperson
Sam Taraka- Deputy Chairperson
Lule Pretorius- Secretary General
Juleka Latib- Deputy General Secretary
Frans Seema- Co-ordinator
Phumlani Ndlovu- Treasure
Clifford Dube- Administrator
Leon Barclay- Chairman (Investment)
Bonisile Malati- Deputy Chairman (Investment)
Report by Bhevha Hlophe (CIEAS, Swaziland)
The Coalition of Informal Economy Association of Swaziland (CIEAS) is still running in full steam with the activities of the SADC Informal Traders Campaign, aimed at putting an end to sexual and economic violence on informal traders. On the 05th December 2011 (Monday) we held a rally with informal traders in the Hhohho region. The rally focussed on issues and challenges affecting informal traders in Swaziland. So far in the different places where we held our rallies it has become clear that most of the traders across our country struggle with similar challenges though situated in different regions. For example, rally after rally we were told by traders that they lack proper stalls to trade. Those who are cross-borders, especially women traders complained of sexual harassment at borders while over taxation is also another serious concern for most cross border traders. We could not help but notice how the traders appreciated our effort to discuss with them about their experiences and challenges. It is however sad that we could not go to every region and speak to all of them because of financial constraints. Our wish is that before the end of this year we should be able to organize a workshop for traders who are widows. The idea is to ensure that they are empowered to know their rights, especially since some men hide behind culture to exploit them. Therefore we are planning on organizing a workshop and invite some legal experts to come and empower them accordingly.
Report by Riedewaan Charles (Western Cape Informal Traders)
In Western Cape informal traders on the streets and those selling in the demarcated areas at least have not experienced any impounding for a month now and we hope it continues to be like that. However, we are disturbed that traders selling on the metro rail are being harassed left right and centre by the metro rail security, who only explain their action as enforcing the law. The challenge is that when we approach Intersite, we are not allowed to see the managers instead we are told to set an appointment first and lay a complaint at the information desk. Nevertheless, our complaints never get to the manager (s) and we also not afforded opportunity to meet the manager (s) so that we are able to engage her or him about the harassment of rail traders. We have also been busy mobilising and organising the sector in the province. We have noticed that most of the informal traders lack skills, even of running their own organisations. Lack of skills of informal traders in Western Cape have as a result led to the split of 43 informal trader organisations, but we have been successful in mobilising traders to resuscitate 20 organisations. We believe that if we can be able to have proper structures of traders it will be easier to speak with one voice, get funding and challenge government forcefully to take us seriously as the sector. We envision forming a strong inclusive provincial informal trader’s structure by next year February.
