Consultation Meeting of Informal traders in Mankayane (Swaziland)

As part of the SADC Informal Traders Campaign, aimed at putting an end to sexual and economic violence on informal traders, the Coalition of informal economy Association of Swaziland is hosting a Consultation Meeting with Informal traders in Mankayane (Sub-region of Mbabane, Swaziland). The meeting will discuss issues and challenges affecting informal traders in Swaziland and explore strategies on how to deal with it. About 1000 traders are expected to attend, coming from areas such as Mbabane, Nhlangano, Mankayane, and Manzini. Also participating in this campaign is informal traders from other SADC countries such as South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The Ecumenical Service for Socio Economic Transformation (ESSET) is holding a two

day Stakeholder Dialogue on Policy and Legislation of Informal Trade. The dialogue is being

held in Kliptown Hall (Soweto) on 11- 12 October 2011.

Background to the dialogues

ESSET started working with informal traders around the city of Johannesburg in 2006. One of

the ESSET projects under its accompaniment programme is informal trading. In 2006,

we conducted a survey on informal trade, with the aim to have a better perspective of the sector. In 2011, ESSET supported by the Foundation for Human Rights embarked on the project

titled: Strengthening the Voice of Women informal traders in Policy processes.

In carrying out this project, ESSET embarked on a number of activities. One of these is a

research that was aimed at providing information on relevant legislation and policies

and conducted three days workshops in Johannes burg and Rustenburg on advancing the

socio economic rights of women traders. The workshops together with the research resulted

 in an understanding by women traders of their rights; however the issues on policy still

needs further engagement. Thus the upcoming stakeholder dialogue will be used as a

platform for both women and men informal traders and policy makers, law enforces to

engage, to ensure proper representation of women informal traders in policy processes

and the realisation of their rights to participate in the informal economy.

The objectives of the dialogue are :  

·         To engage on the research findings on legislation and policy that has a bearing on

       rights of women traders to trade and its implications to participatory democracy.

·         To deliberate on shared experiences and demands formulated while exploring possible avenues for participation.

·         To explore avenues for participation by women traders and to examine hindrances to participation of women traders in policy processes.

Stakeholder Dialogue schedule details:

Date : 11- 12 October 2011

Venue: Jabulani, Soweto

Time: 10am – 3pm

ESSET host Stakeholder Dialogue on Policy and Legislation of Informal Trade

The Ecumenical Service for Socio Economic Transformation (ESSET) will be holding a two day Stakeholder Dialogue on Policy and Legislation of Informal Trade. The dialogue will be held in Kliptown Hall (Soweto) on 11- 12 October 2011.

Background to the dialogues
ESSET started working with informal traders around the city of Johannesburg in 2006. One of the ESSET projects under its accompaniment programme is informal trading. In 2006, we conducted a survey on informal trade, with the aim to have a better perspective of the sector. In 2011, ESSET supported by the Foundation for Human Rights embarked on the project titled: Strengthening the Voice of Women informal traders in Policy processes.

In carrying out this project, ESSET embarked on a number of activities. One of these is a research that was aimed at providing information on relevant legislation and policies and conducted three days workshops in Johannesburg and Rustenburg on advancing the socio economic rights of women traders. The workshops together with the research resulted in an understanding by women traders of their rights; however the issues on policy still needs further engagement. Thus the upcoming stakeholder dialogue will be used as a platform for both women and men informal traders and policy makers, law enforces to engage, to ensure proper representation of informal traders in policy processes and the realisation of their rights to participate.

The objectives of the dialogue are :
• To engage on the research findings on legislation and policy that has a
bearing on rights of women traders to trade and its implications to
participatory democracy.
• To deliberate on shared experiences and demands formulated while
exploring possible avenues for participation.
• To explore avenues for participation by women traders and to examine
hindrances to participation of women traders in policy processes.

Stakeholder Dialogue schedule details:

Date : 11- 12 October 2011
Venue: Jabulani, Soweto
Time : 10am – 3pm

Informal traders at Stretford station in agitations over eviction

The informal traders selling at Stretford station in Orange Farm (West of Johannesburg, South Africa) have been living in agitations recently after having received a verbal notice that they will be evicted from their trading site to make way for the construction of a mall.

Mama Ernestina Sithole, a widow and grandmother of seven, wants the sale transaction of the land and plans for the building of the mall to be halted. Mama Sithole reveals how it all started: “When we started to trade here in 1989 during apartheid, there were no municipal by-laws or regulations of traders. With only two trains, we survived selling to commuters and why should they make our life hell now in a democratic dispensation when there is more trains and more commuters. We should be allowed to sell more freely to support our families because this is the only means of our livelihood. We want the initial agreement to still be honoured, whereby we are only allowed to trade in stalls in the entrance of the station and not stores inside the mall. We cannot afford to pay more than R100, our profit is little and many of us have many responsibilities”.

Mama Sithole is amongst the few who are the first in Orange farm, who settled in Extension 1 since 1989, where they are still living. They approached the municipality, who was known as the TPA for work but were without luck. Mr. DeBeers who was a land owner then encouraged women like Mama Sithole to brew mageu and make fat cakes and sell at the station. And that’s how they have survived and supported their families.

She and other fellow traders are in distress because if the land on which they are trading in is sold by December this year then that will mean automatic eviction for all traders. Between now and the selling date of the land, traders have vowed to fight for their right to make a living. The Stretford traders are amongst many vulnerable groups of the poor experiencing injustice of the system. Others groups such as the Cloverdene Homeless community who have on numerous occasions faced threats of evictions and be forcefully displaced in their dwelling places.   

She continues to elaborate: “We started to experience threats in our businesses in 1992 when a man called Majola came harassing and chasing us to move away from the station and his land. We resisted eviction and upon doing our own investigations, we discovered that he was not even the landlord and in 1993 he disappeared. Then in 1994 Mr Liewemann surfaced as the landlord and immediately also instructed us to stop trading at the station. We refused to go away. We then told him that we had been there long before he bought the land. We explained to him that the station is a lucrative trading site because most of our customers were commuters using trains. He then agreed that we can continue trading here at the entrance of the station. It is strange that he has now shifted from our original agreement but we will not be timid, we are prepared to fight for our rights to trade here. If we are hungry most of us come here, it has become a shared space for all of us to make a living without having to produce qualifications or certain skills. We don’t say we will not pay rent but we must be given trading space that we can afford to pay and that the rental charges must be reasonable”.

According to the traders they were recently visited by people who claimed to belong to Business Forum and Urban Development respectively, both also indicating that they were acting on behalf of the landlord of the land on which they were trading to come to give verbal notice for the traders to move out so that the construction of the mall would resume. The irate traders have continuously defied verbal notice of eviction by continuing to trade at the station and held meetings with the landlord. They have since approached the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) to help strengthen their struggle to not lose their right to trade and get better deals from the landlord once the mall is built. The LHR officials and has subsequently engaged the owner (Mr David Liewemann) of the land earmarked to be used to build a mall next to the Stretford station.

In a feedback meeting held last week between the informal traders and LHR officials, the informal traders were still baffled that Mr Liewemann has retrogressed from their original agreement. The traders insist that the landlord assured them that no matter what, they will always be tenants and traders at the land next to the station. He even made them sign agreement of such decision which further assures them that they will only pay R100 per stall on a monthly basis.

However, the feedback from the LHR officials who went to meet Mr Liewemann about the distress of traders signifies that the building of the mall is imminent and that there is little that the traders can do about it. Mr Liewemann is offering to accommodate 32 traders whom he found at the station when he became the new landlord in 1994. He has promised to make available seven square metres each to the 32 traders inside the mall which may be sponsored by other big retailers such as Pick ’n Pay. The traders will be expected to pay at least 25% of rental and when their businesses pick up; they are expected to pay up to a minimum of R1000 per a month. Once the mall is built it will be illegal for traders to continue selling at the station or near the mall.

Bheki Mathebula, one of the traders in attendance at the meeting asked: “Is the landlord hell-bent on going ahead with the construction of the mall whereas it will result in many of us being forced to shut down our businesses and go home to suffer”. The question to which the LHR officials responded with a sad and loud yes and further elaborating that the landlord want traders to move to trade at taxi rank instead of the mall. However, the officials promised the traders that they will put more effort in ensuring that the construction of the mall does not take away their rights to continue selling and making a living. It also came to light that the landlord is currently leasing the land with prospects that the transaction sale will be finalised not later than the end of this year.

The imminent eviction of traders at the station has equally affected both the old and the young. One of the youth traders at the station, Daniel Letsholonyane says that traders as members of the community in Orange Farm welcome developments but it should not come at traders’ expense. “We do not want developments that will marginalise and make us more poorer. If the development is genuine then we should be all be consulted as stakeholders and reach amicable solution. We cannot allow government, business and the landlord to make decisions that negatively impact us without challenging them. This land belongs to us all”.

Empty promises for the Cloverdene community

The Cloverdene community, which comprises of more 100 people including women and children, were excited at the news of the allocation of land but their joy was short-lived when they became aware that their new homes will be shacks. Their new homes were built unashamedly by the ‘red-ants’ using corrugated iron of destroyed shacks.

The leader of the Cloverdene community, Willie Madalane explains: “Our lawyer had informed us that when we move to our land we would have access to basic amenities such as tap of water and toilet for every family. However, a day before we moved in, the office of Housing in municipality told us that there was a land that has been identified in Gabon (Daveyton). We were told that we will occupy that land temporarily. When we arrived there on Saturday, we found the ‘red-ants’ building shacks with old rusted corrugated irons that were used for shacks”.

According to Madalane their lawyer also told them that the Ekurhuleni municipality would built them two bedroom shelters, but they found out that it was not so when they moved it. “Most of the shacks are one room, you are lucky if you have two rooms. The shacks do not even have windows, it’s like they were built for pigs to stay. After we moved in to the new land, we went a month without sanitation. We were then installed only five toilets to cater for more than 100 of us. Having access to water is still a problem to this day; we walk about a kilometre to get it. We tried to install water taps ourselves but the plumber demanded at least R350 from every house, which is an option even more expensive for the poor like us,” Madalane remarked.

It appears that the Ekurhuleni municipality officials have just dumped the community in their new land and only to abandon them. A member of the community says that the official who was co-ordinating their relocation can’t even recognise the leader of the community nor remember that he ever handle their case. No wonder there is sluggishness which results in the municipality not being able to fulfil its promises. Another challenge for the community is that the relocation affected their children who attend school. After the relocation to Daveyton, most of the kids still had to continue attending school in Cloverdene because there were no prior arrangements made to accommodate them in Daveyton schools. Some kids had to drop from school because their parents (mostly single moms) cannot afford to pay R400 transport cost for their kids to continue attending school in Cloverdene. Therefore, the community feels that the municipality did not take into account their rights to be compensated when they moved them away from work stations and schools. Meanwhile, there is restlessness amongst members of the community because they are not even registered as legitimate occupants of their new land. They feel that anyone could come and claim the land from them since the municipality have refused to give them documentation as proof of their legitimacy to stay in their allocated land.

The Cloverdene community who once lived in the open veld near Albert Luthuli Extension 5, Benoni, have chosen to fight their struggle differently. They don’t intent going on the rampage blockading streets and burning tyres to get the attention of the authorities at Ekurhuleni municipality. Instead they say they will remain loyal to their cause and keep on engaging their municipal authorities whilst at the same time praying to God with the churches as they demand their rights.

The leader of the community adds: “This struggle is so personal to me; I could liken it to a calling or a ministry. I qualified for an RDP house long time ago, but I choose to deny myself all the privileges until that same RDP offer is afforded equally to all my community members that are in the same struggle with me”. The Cloverdene community have approached ESSET to continue to mobilise support for them especially amongst the church fraternity. They community is intending to seek an audience with relevant authorities at Ekurhuleni municipality to ensure that their demands are listened to and addressed.

ESSET together Church Land Programme and few churches have been walking along with the Cloverdene community in their fight for justice against their eviction and confiscation of their possessions. After hearing about the plight of the community, ESSET mobilised the churches and organised a prayer service for them. The community was supported by ESSET and the church as the community took the Ekurhuleni municipality to court, in a case which the community won. Churches that have been involved in the struggle of the community included; the Methodist Church in Southern Africa, Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, the Gauteng Council of Churches, United Congregational Church in Southern Africa, Lutheran Church of Southern Africa, Outreach Community Church, Ekurhuleni Ministers Fraternal.

Media Statement: Public Discussion about the rights of Women informal traders

DATE: 17/05/2011

The Women Informal Traders Forum (WITF), a forum of women informal traders that was launched by women traders in August 2010 to fight for the emancipation of women traders in South Africa and the SADC Region, held a Public Discussion on Monday (16/05/2011) with representatives of political parties such as Democratic Alliance, Pan Africanist Congress, Inkatha Freedom Party and National Freedom Party.

As Women Informal Traders we have heightened our campaign during the electioneering period to raise awareness on our struggles and human rights violations. The long term goal of our campaign is to improve the working conditions of women traders and ensure an enabling trading environment for us. Through hosting a Public Discussion with politicians, we seek to put pressure on political parties and government to make commitment to address our demands and plight. Key amongst our demands during the campaign included:

§  A stop to confiscation of stock and reasonable rentals for all trading sites.

§  A stop to sexual and economic harassment of women traders.

§  Proper workshoping and reformulation of informal trading policies and by-laws to be gender sensitive.

§  Development and implementation of uniform informal trading by-laws and policies across the country.

§  Recognition and proper representation of informal traders at all government structures.

During the Public Discussion, a video, depicting the plight and everyday challenges of women informal traders from around Johannesburg Inner-city and surrounding areas was played. Thereof, representatives from various political parties mainly from Gauteng branches were given opportunity to react and make commitments with regard to our struggle. Below is the promises made by representatives from different political parties that attended the Public Discussion:

DA:

The representatives of the Democratic Alliance (DA) have shown interest in building relationship with informal traders. More specifically, the party promised the traders that it will do more to address their issues of allocation of stalls; health and environmental safety as well as studying trading by-laws that usually resulted in harassment of traders. After the municipal elections, DA further promised to seek audience with the Metro Trading Company (MTC), a company entrusted with the responsibility to manage informal traders in the City of Johannesburg. The party stated that it would invite women informal traders to meetings that it will hold with the MTC to explore solutions to resolving problems raised by the traders.

PAC:

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) appreciated the role played by women informal traders and went further to call them entrepreneurs because they took initiative to create their own jobs. The party criticised government for not recognising the importance of developing and supporting the informal trading sector. It stated that unlike government who prefer to grow big business only, if voted into power it would respect and seek to develop a despised sector like informal trading. It view the informal trading sector as an alternative to creating jobs and believe that some of those in offices of power in government like Ministers, MECs, metro police etc where raised by women traders, who today they are not ashamed to batter. The promise made by the party was that after the elections they would engage the trading by-laws. They urged the informal traders and their association to choose a party that will be able to listen to their needs and comply with their demands.

IFP

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) emphasised that the ruling party has undermined the will of the people by continuing to develop and implement by-laws that still oppresses people like in the apartheid era. The IFP promised to resolve all issues of informal traders by lobbying for the closure of the Metro Trading Company. The party hold the view that most of the decisions regarding the management of informal traders are made by MTC, which has lost credibility because of its corrupt officials. The party promised women traders that their doors will always open and that more discussions about their challenges would be held after elections.

NFP

The National Freedom Party said that their leader who is a woman is very dear to issues concerning women, especially their safety and development. The party noted and appreciated the ability of the informal trading sector to sustain family livelihood and the contribution it makes to the country’s economy. NFP promised women traders that if they would be voted into power they will bring innovative ways to advance the businesses of all traders. Under NFP, women traders and all the other traders will be fully supported to increase job creation. For instance, the party will introduce mobile trucks for all traders, so that from time to time they are able to trade and move freely to areas with better business prospect

Kind Regards

Nokuthula  Dladla

Committee Co-ordinator: Women Informal Traders Forum

Press Statement on behalf of the SADC Solidarity Network of Informal traders

Stand Up Against Economic and Sexual Violence on Informal Traders

On the 5-6 of May, the Ecumenical Service for Socioeconomic Transformation (ESSET) held a consultation that brought together representatives of both local and cross border informal traders, Councils and representatives of Churches in the SADC region and civil society organisations concerned about injustices perpetrated against informal traders. The aim of the consultation was to explore joint campaigns by informal traders that would bring an end to all forms of economic and sexual violence against them.  The consultation ended with the establishment of a SADC Solidarity Network of Informal Traders. One of the goals of this network is to initiate and promote solidarity campaigns that are aimed at fighting injustices perpetrated against informal traders

As we came to the end of the consultation, we were reminded that struggles of informal traders are real. They affect real people who live in this real world that has become the real enemy of God. It is a world where women and girl children cannot live in freedom, as theirs is a world of abuse, rape and marginalisation. The news of the rape of a young girl, a daughter of one of the women traders who could not make it to the consultation came as a shock to all of us. This devastating news came even as we spent the two days deliberating on how we can support informal traders to put an end to all forms of violence against them, particularly sexual and economic violence. Such forms of violence come in various ways. Informal traders spend most of their time at work on the streets or across the borders, constantly dealing with harassment by government officials. These officials steal from them the little that they have through unlawful confiscation of their goods. These unscrupulous officials also demand bribes from poor people who are trying to make a clean living for their families.   Lack of recognition of the informal trade sector by most of the SADC countries has negative consequences for the countless numbers of people who depend on informal trade for their livelihood. This lack of recognition is seen in the absence of policies that support informal trade in most countries and the contradictory nature of the policies where they exist. Even regional integration that is supposed to play a major role in addressing poverty and inequalities excludes informal traders.

Women traders also face humiliation through sexual violence, including demand for sex or to be touched in return for safe passage through the borders or to escape stock confiscation. Sexual violence is a vicious act inflicted upon its victims bringing untold suffering and pain. No child or woman in this world should ever have to go through rape or any other form of sexual violence.

The SADC Solidarity Network is calling upon all of us and especially churches to rekindle their commitment to justice, by standing in solidarity with informal traders in their war against sexual and economic violence. If the sexual violence against informal traders is not enough to stir sufficient anger against social and economic injustices perpetrated against the poor, would we allow ourselves to be agitated enough by the rape of the defenceless little daughter of one of the informal traders? We are also calling on all our governments in the SADC region to stop ignoring this sector and begin to see it for what it is – an alternative that has for years sustained many poor families in the region.

Issued by the SADC Solidarity Network of Informal Traders

Tel: 0118331190              Email: info@esset.org.za