Farouk Chothia
CRAFT vendors who display their wares on Durban’s Golden Mile, the sangomas who scatter dead pigeons on the city’s bustling pavements, the dress-sellers who shout their prices on street corners — these women are all members of one of the country’s newest unions, the Self-Employed Women’s Union (Sewu).
Muti-seller Zodwa Khumalo is Sewu’s vice-president. Sitting with a mortar and pestle to crush wood for her medicines, she remarked: “Let the women be on their own. We want them to learn not to be afraid when men speak.”
Sewu’s members hail from northern Natal and the former Transkei homeland. They have settled in Durban, just like others in their families have done before them, to eke out a living on the beachfront, in Russell and West streets and in Block AK, an informal trading centre near Greyville race-course.
Some live in single-sex hostels, but for many, home is the pavement, where the women sleep in turns, some staying awake to fend off muggers and rapists who wait to strike.
Daytime is no different. Rain destroys their precious goods; self- styled rentlords demand cash for pavement sites — and, before the change in government, police would hound them off the streets.
Against this backdrop, Sewu was launched last month with the aim of helping the women improve their working conditions.
Khumalo has plied her trade in Russell street ever since her husband died four years ago. Now 50 years old, she said the women would welcome the market the city council is considering building for informal traders. “We will have toilets. We will have shelter for our goods. Maybe even a creche for our children. But the market must be at a good spot where our customers will come — near the taxi ranks and train stations. Otherwise, we will get no business,” said Zodwa.
One of the prime-movers behind Sewu’s formation was Pat Horn, a white woman who cut her teeth in the Chemical Workers’ Industrial Union (CWIU). Now Sewu’s secretary, she said: “Individuals cannot resist. As a group, they can be empowered. The women think they have no rights. When you talk to some of them about rights, they laugh.”
She related the experience of Sewu’s president, Mankinto Ngcobo (49), who, along with two other women, was assaulted, allegedly by a tourist, on the beach-front recently. A craft-vendor since she was 11-years-old, Ngcobo was allegedly punched, leaving her with a blue- eye.
“The women accept this type of humiliation because they are afraid they will lose their livelihood. We eventually persuaded Ngcobo to lay charges of assault with the police but the other two women still refuse to do so,” said Horn.
Another serious problem was street sellers being raped. “Our members reported a rape that had occurred in the Block AK area recently. We are trying to contact the woman to see how we can assist. We intend to take up the issue of rape strongly,” said Horn.
The women are organising themselves: on the beachfront, for instance, there is now an elected “trade committee” which attends to grievances and holds report-back meetings.
The union’s membership stands at 251, with more then half the members — 141 — coming from the beachfront. The union also recruits “home- based” women. One of these is Patience Mahlaba (41) whose story bears testimony to the womens’ survival instinct.
Fired by her employer two years ago for failing to report to work because of political violence in Umlazi’s shack settlement, she and other women formed a co-operative, sewing dresses.
After a fresh wave of violence swept through the township, the co- operative folded. Undaunted, Mahlaba restarted it in Umbilo, a predominantly white business area. But the co-operative had a major problem, however: no customers.
With the help of Sewu, negotiations to give the co-operative a market site at Durban’s Snake Park on north beach were successful.
The market operates between 8pm and 5am in the first half of the month, targeting passengers who disembark from buses arriving from Northern Transvaal and Swaziland.
Horn said the problem of a shortage of customers would not disappear, as the trade was saturated.
“Our challenge is to address the structural problem (and) to get the women to diversify into non-traditional areas, like carpentry and electrification,” she said. Sewu is now negotiating with the Khuphuka Skills Training and Employment Project to run part-time classes for Sewu members. “Many of the women are eager to learn such non- traditional skills in order to obtain employment in RDP building and electrification programmes,” added Horn.
On the beachfront, craft-vendors complain of business falling off. They say it’s because white holiday-makers avoid Durban now that its beaches have been desegregated.
Some of Sewu’s beachfront members have now obtained financial loans from the Get Ahead Foundation which assists small traders.
Ngcobo said: “We formed a group of five and the Get Ahead Foundation gave us R3 000. We divided the money equally amongst ourselves.”
The women have to re-pay R55 a month over 12 months. Total interest charged on the loan is R160. Ngcobo has no objection to paying interest. “We can do forward-planning. We now have the money to buy more when a busy month is coming,” she said.