RESPONSE TO THE POLICE ATTACKS ON INFORMAL TRADERS IN PRETORIA

The Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation (ESSET), an independent ecumenical organisation that works for social and economic justice and transformation against the systematic exclusion and exploitation of the poor condemns in the strongest words possible the continued police attacks on informal traders as witnessed in various areas in Tshwane last week and over the weekend.

As an organisation that has been accompanying informal traders for years now, ESSET was deeply disturbed to see on the news informal traders being chased around and shot with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. This was taking place at the backdrop of the brutal killings of the Lonmin miners in Marikana at the hands of police. We would not want to see the repeat of the horrific images of such unnecessary killings, especially whilst still fresh on our memories. On the 27 August 2012, ESSET went with a delegation consisting of church ministers and representatives of informal traders associations to Tshwane to show solidarity with traders and seek to understand what was going on. As we arrived in Tshwane, the informal traders had embarked on yet another march and camped outside the Mayor of the City of Tshwane’s offices, where police contingent monitored the situation.

We learnt that the informal traders had been seeking audience with the City of Tshwane Executive Mayor Sputla Ramokgopa in an endeavour to engage him about unilateral decisions taken to evict them from their trading sites. Despite not being able to meet the Executive Mayor, the traders are giving the Municipal Steering Committee appointed to deal with their demands a chance. Yesterday (31/08/2012), the Tshwane informal traders’ leadership will meet the committee to engage further. In our interaction with informal traders, we found out that most of them were frustrated at their relocation. They are aware that once they are evicted from their trading sites, their income would not be guaranteed anymore. Recently, we have learnt how widows of killed miners whom most are from poverty-stricken provinces like Eastern Cape have to fend for themselves and raise children alone.

The Informal traders in Tshwane have informed us of how the police started impounding their stock and told them to leave their trading sites. Neli Shabangu one of the traders in Tshwane explained: “we had planned a march to the Office of the Executive Mayor where we were to hand over our memorandum of demands. Our march was necessitated by the police attacks on us earlier in the week. They forced us to vacate our trading sites, especially those of us who were trading in Van der Walt street in the Central Business District and in Marabastad. The police said they were following the orders of the Executive Mayor who wanted us off the streets to make way for the Tshwane beautification project. We do not think that it is fair to just evict us from where we have been trading without providing alternative trading sites for us”.

The unjustified attacks on informal traders in Tshwane are not an isolated incident, they reprise in various other cities across the country. As Neli rightly suggests, these attacks are part of the beautification project undertaken by city councils aimed at boosting tourism and attracting investors. These are done, we are told to attract investments to the cities whilst at the same time promoting and protecting the interests of big businesses. In the process, there is very little care about the effects on the livelihoods of the poor. It is outrageous the extent to which our governments are willing to go to fulfil the dream of World Class cities associated with these beautification campaigns. In Lesotho, the informal traders are exasperated with their government for allocating huge tracts of public land to big businesses-owned private shopping malls, whilst failing to build linear markets for street and market traders.  Whilst big businesses complain about competition from informal traders, we find it rather disturbing that big businesses are allowed to compete directly with informal trades. In Lesotho and Swaziland, these businesses go to an extent of employing informal traders and erect trading stalls outside their business premises to compete with street traders. This is unfair trading that force informal traders out of business. The tendency to prohibit informal trade affects women greatly because they are in the majority in the sector and most of them thought they had escaped poverty by joining informal trade to feed their families.

The recent police attacks on informal traders in Tshwane can only tell us one thing; that we have not learnt our lessons from the tragedy in Marikana. Instead of seeking to resolve issues peacefully and amicably where there are disagreements, police are used as a ploy to shut down those with less power, especially the poor. Section 12 of the Bill of rights in the Constitution states that everyone has the right to freedom and security, which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence, not to be tortured; and not to be treated or punished in a cruel, in human or degrading way.  However, it is clear that the poor do not enjoy the benefits of this clause and those who are perpetuating the brutality on the poor is those who are supposed to protect them. We are however not surprised at the actions of the City of Tshwane and his refusal to engage with the informal traders. Executive Mayor Sputla Ramokgopa was previously the CEO of Johannesburg Metro Trading Company, which is known for its ill –treatment on informal traders. This company, which is supposed to manage informal trading in some cities in the country, is often surrounded by allegations of corruption through demands for bribes by its staff. Fed up imperturbability calm

The fact that the informal traders and miners confronted death by standing up against the police should tell us about irascibility because of sustained injustice, inequality and abject poverty meted at them. The protests and marches we are witnessing lately indicate the anger and frustration of the poor workers at the attack of their rights and dignity. These workers refuse to be seen as vulnerable victims of the unjust system that continues to undermine them. They have in themselves the ability to bring about the change they want to see in their lives. The determination of the informal traders in Tshwane to withstand the police attacks on them and evictions bears testimony to this. To avoid more of these kinds of protests in future, it would seem that it is no longer a choice for our government but to prioritise the systematic nature of our economy which breeds poverty and inequality to ensure economic liberation to all.

ESSET is calling on all South Africans, Churches and social justice practitioners to stand in solidarity with the informal traders other formations of the poor and condemn injustice imposed on them. For the church, this is a scriptural mandate that calls for the affirmation of the fullness of life for all (John 10:10) and to seek and announce the reign and kingdom of God on earth. We are also appealing for the implementation of the call made by the Archbishop of Cape Town for all church leaders to visit informal traders in their sites of struggle across the country. This call led to pastoral visits that took place in June 2012 around Gauteng to selected sites of informal traders. However, other decisions that were made to this effect are yet to be implemented. Amongst these, is the engagement of political leaders who impose on municipalities to implement their unjust and heartless by-laws and policies.