Challenges Faced by Women Hawkers

Street vendors have become an important part of the economic activity in South Africa. The number in this informal trade is increasing, this due to the rise of the unemployment and the negative impact of the economic recession on employment.

The UN-INSTRAW/SAIIA study found that the informal economy is a significant source of employment for women migrants, who are most likely to work as vendors, street traders, or hawkers.
According to a 2006 survey that monitored over 85,000 traders passing through 20 border posts connecting ten countries in the SADC region, 70% of all traders at the main border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe were women.

The informal economy generally provides low incomes, which has a negative impact on integration in the destination country and the ability to send remittances. In the mining sector, some women migrate with their husbands or partners and provide services to male mine workers.

In the case of Lesotho, the increase in unemployment among Basotho men in South African mines has forced women to migrate to the capital of Lesotho to work in textile companies, or to migrate to South Africa.

Women'sNet spoke to Maria Macevele, who sells roasted peanuts and sweets in the Johannesburg city centre.

Q: When did you start your business?

A: I started my business in 1994 at one of the high schools in Meadowlands zone 7, Soweto. During those days things were better.

Q: How has the economy affected your business as one of women hawkers in South Africa?

A: The economy is bad, prices are high, I have to buy stock then sit for the whole day and find few people buying. The other issue is that I am a bread winner; I'm feeding two of my youngest children with the profit I get from the business. There is not enough money.

Q: How do you deal with it?

A: It's hard, with the money I get which is between a hundred and fifty rands to two hundred rands a day, it is spent on food, travelling, actually basic needs. I also have joined stokvel (stokvels are clubs or syndicates serving as rotating credit unions in South Africa where members contribute fixed sums of money to a central fund on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis) which consists of five women, it's a way of investment for me because the money I pay for each member, it comes back to me.

Q: Have you thought of expanding your business?

A: Yes, but I don't have enough capital to grow the business, our economy is killing us. The money I get is from hand to mouth.

Q: What about getting a loan to grow the business?

A: With the current economic situation if I take a loan I will be forever indebted in the organization that gave me a loan and I will be working for the loan not for me. Where I come from (rural areas) there's umashonisa (loan shark), you will borrow money and pay until you die or you will be working to pay a loan shark and have no money to support your children. Even if I grow my business I'll be doing it for the Metro police! They always confiscate our goods.

Q: What changes do you want for women like you, running small business?

A: I want changes but don't know how. Metro police are the problem they come and take our goods, how can things change? If there'll be an opportunity I can find a place where Metro police won't come and take my goods.

Q: When you get that opportunity will your business be in town or in the townships?

A: I'll choose town because people in the townships want credit and do not pay you back, it's bad! Times are hard.