Focus on informal traders
Most vulnerable workers need support to transition into formal economy
ASTUDY has shown that informal traders in the City, and various other parts of the country, are discriminated against when it comes to developing policies. In a recent study titled “Benign Neglect or Active Destruction? A Critical Analysis of Refugee and Informal Sector Policy and Practice in South Africa,” the researchers found that the City is excluding informal traders, many of them refugees and immigrants, from policies affecting them.
The study said the City “systematically excludes the contributions and development of street trade and township trade”.
The study states that informal sector policies have a direct impact on refugee livelihoods, as the lack of job opportunities in the formal sector largely restricts refugees to work in the informal sector.
“Surveying policies and actions from different levels of government, it becomes clear that South African treatment of the informal sector and migrants within it has been highly irregular, varying between neglect and marginalisation to intentional destruction and oppression.
“The focus is on providing support to the informal trade so the country’s true breadwinners can transition to the formal economy. Informal traders are generally recognised as the most vulnerable of workers. For this reason, they need the protection of a national structure, one that can negotiate on their behalf with local authorities and which can represent them in disputes,” president of the SA Informal Traders’ Association Rosheda Muller said.
Muller said the government was aware of how important the informal trade was to the economy. “It’s not just about taking action to support the informal trade, it’s also about not taking actions which will damage this important sector… One of our primary concerns is that the impact on the informal trade needs to be considered before the development of any new laws or regulations and, where necessary, exemptions should be granted,” she said.
Popo Mfubu, an attorney at the Refugee Rights Unit at UCT, said: “It speaks to a much greater problem about how on a national level we do not adequately incorporate informal traders into our economy.”
IT’S BECOME CLEAR THAT SA TREATMENT OF THE INFORMAL SECTOR AND MIGRANTS WITHIN IT HAS BEEN HIGHLY IRREGULAR