This week ESSET is holding Consultation with informal Traders in Swaziland and Lesotho

The Ecumenical Service for Socioeconomic Transformation (ESSET) is this week (20-25 May 2012) holding Consultations with informal traders in Swaziland and Lesotho respectively. The aim of the consultation is to reflect together on ways that would strengthen the voice of informal traders in the region. This is part of ongoing processes with traders who are members of the SADC Network of Traders that was established in May 2011. The Network consists of traders from South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. It brings together in-country informal traders and cross-border traders with the aim to fight their struggles with a united voice.

The consultation process amongst others will involve public meetings, focus group discussions and reflective meetings in different townships and locations with traders locally. A critical part of the reflections with traders will be collective analysis of their external and internal context impeding on their ability to trade in the SADC region. An action learning approach will be used based on the real everyday challenges faced by informal traders.

The process is aimed at serving the interests of traders who suffer daily injustices at the hands of their respective governments. It holds the  possibility of the emergence of a coherent political agenda of the SADC Network of Informal Traders that is grounded on the concrete experiences of traders; and will eventually inform their collective actions to bring about change in their world. It is further expected that it will generate valuable information that the traders will use to influence their own environment. Moreover, it is anticipated that the information from this process will dispel the myth that traders are not contributing to the economies of the SADC region, whilst at the same time affirming their role. 

The City of Johannesburg has lied about reaching amicable agreement with informal traders

Following the recent wide media publicity and decry on metro police officials attacks on an informal trader in Midrand, the City of Johannesburg has claimed that an amicable agreement has been reached with the leadership of the informal trade sector. The City of Johannesburg’s Department of Economic Development, which facilitated the urgent meeting between the trader organisations and the representatives from the city, circulated inaccurate minutes of the proceedings and lied about both parties having reached a cordial solution.

The urgent meeting was convened following allegations of abuse of power by the Metro Police officers being reported to the City of Johannesburg by the trader organisation, South African National Traders Retail Alliance (SANTRA). The organisation had called for an urgent meeting of decision makers at the City of Johannesburg regarding the request for a moratorium on the confiscation of informal traders’ goods as a means of law enforcement. Upon securing a date for the meeting with the decision makers at the city, the SANTRA leadership further communicated with the officials from city that they would bring along a legal representative to the meeting. The reason for them bringing in their legal representative was to cover for their lack of legal expertise.  However, on the day of the meeting the legal representative of the traders was refused entry or to be part of the proceedings. The officials from the city contended that no legal representative would be allowed in the meeting because the subject of moratorium on confiscation of informal traders’ goods was a legal matter.

To add misery to the frustration of the traders, the head of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department by-law enforcement team made it clear from the onset that a moratorium on the confiscation of informal traders’ goods would not be deliberated under any circumstances. He told the traders that he was uninformed of the issue of a moratorium on confiscation of goods being the main issue on the on the agenda. He then proceeded ahead to draft the new agenda of the meeting. He deliberately left out the issue of a moratorium on confiscation of informal traders’ goods from the agenda. This prompted the leadership of SANTRA to leave even before the proceedings began as they felt that it was unprofitable sitting in the meeting that does not speak address their needs and demands.

The treatment of the SANTRA delegation at the meeting reflects but a continuum of past injustices on informal traders. In many municipalities across our country, the rights of informal traders to trade and make an honest living are trampled upon. The law enforcement agents pounce on them out of their trading sites thereby forcing them to make way for new roads, trains, shopping centres and bus stations. This clearly shows that government have no regard for informal trade because they see it as a sector that is illegal and criminal. Some municipal officials use divide and rule tactics to bring conflicts amongst informal traders thereby weakening their ability to speak unison. It is clear our government still perpetuates neo-liberal agenda that serves the interests of capitalists whilst at the same time depriving the poor benefits of the mainstream economy. 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH with metro police brutality on informal traders

The Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation (ESSET) condemns in the strongest possible terms the punching and kicking of an informal trader, Andries Ndlovu by four uniformed metro police officers in Ivory Park, Midrand. According to Sunday Times, Ndlovu was beaten on Freedom Day after he asked the metro police officers why they were beating another informal trader, a 60-year-old welder who demanded a receipt or notice when his goods were impounded by the same metro police.

The attack which was publicised widely by various media houses is just but a tip of the iceberg of the harassment experienced by informal traders in many townships, cities and street corners at the hands on the metro police. The unwarranted beating of Ndlovu confirms the stories told by the traders in the recent consultations held with traders in the past week.  Traders spoke of excessive harassment and maltreatment by law enforcers. They did not only cry of stock confiscation but also of the manner in which this was done. They reported of how the metro police, as was the case in the Ndlovu incident, viciously beat up some traders whilst taking their goods for themselves. In our books, these actions should be named for what they are: theft from the poor who are trying to make an honest living for themselves. Even as we issue this statement, we have received further reports of stock impoundment and harassment from informal traders that we work with in Lenasia. In our view, the treatment of informal traders by our democratic government is a display and a reinforcement of the old apartheid tactics, which restricted informal traders and other poor people from the cities.

The incidents of police brutality against the poor, which took place at the dawn of the Freedom Day and Workers Day celebrations, are an embarrassment to the nation. ESSET, as an ecumenical organisation that has been accompanying the struggle of informal traders, is calling on all South Africans, Churches and social justice practitioners to stand in solidarity with the informal traders and other formations of the poor and denounce the on-going injustices meted against them as witnessed by the police brutality on Andries Ndlovu. In response to this call, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Rev Dr. Thabo Makgoba suggests a solidarity march to show support against such injustices. May his pounding agitate all of us to jointly say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH with the metro police brutality on informal traders and the poor!

This statement is endorsed by ESSET; Mike More, the Chairperson of Gauteng Informal Development Association (GIDA); Sipho Thwala, Co-ordinator of SADC Informal Traders Network; Rev Dr. Prince Dibeela, General Secretary of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA); Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa; and Rev Mautji Pataki, Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches.