COSATU notes with grave concern the manner in which the Johannesburg informal trading crisis is unfolding.
What is most disturbing is the fact that after being forcibly removed 37 days ago, thousands of vulnerable people remain without income. This situation is intolerable, particularly in view of the fact that at the time of these mass forced removals no alternative plan was in place.
At the present time the verification process is massively, painfully and intolerably slow, causing mass, unabated human suffering. The displaced people are unable to pay basic monthly expenses such rent, transport for children to school, school fees, and they will not be in a position even to buy school books at the beginning of next year. Hunger is also now a factor.
We fail to comprehend why this Operation Clean Up has ‘cleaned up’ 1 300 well managed City Improvement District traders without any apparent valid reasons. COSATU urges the City to put up a concrete plan to expedite the process of re-registration and formulate, in consultation with the legitimate stakeholders, developmental management models.
COSATU prefers the City to utilise the principles contained in the SALGA Informal Economy Guideline Framework document and its own Second Economy Policy and Implementation Strategy, as well as the City’s Informal Trading Policy.
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct 010 219-1339
Fax: +27 11 339-6940
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za
