Harassment, theft and selling sex to supplement their tiny incomes are common experiences for women trying to make a living as informal street traders. Informal traders vulnerable to HIV/AIDS By Kerry Cullinan

Harassment, theft and selling sex to supplement their tiny incomes are common experiences for women trying to make a living as informal street traders according to a report released this month by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Researchers Prof Veronica McKay, Dr Elizabeth Mokotong and Dr Brenda Sham were commissioned to look at how HIV/AIDS can be prevented in the informal sector.

What they uncovered from traders in Johannesburg and Tzaneen in Limpopo Province was a vulnerable workforce with poor working conditions, struggling to earn enough money simply to survive.

Three quarters of the 205 traders interviewed (male and female) said they had been forced into the informal sector as there were no other jobs available. However, income from their sales is clearly very small. When asked how much money they would like to earn, the highest aspiration was R100 a day (around R2 000 a month for a 5-day week). Most had even lower aims, with one trader reporting that she would “like to earn R700 a month”.

Some 88% of traders reported that they worked a six- or seven-day week to make their meagre income. In addition, most traders said that they seldom took a day off, even if they were sick, as this would mean no income for the day.

Traders also reported that intense competition for business which they said is corrosive to human relationships.

“An old lady came to work,” recounted one Johannesburg trader. “She used to sell at one side near the taxis. She had been sick for a long time but this day she collapsed. We didn’€™t manage to help her because we couldn’€™t leave our stands. The ambulance came after she had been dead for some hours.”

A quarter of women traders surveyed also reported that sexual harassment was common, with taxi drivers featuring prominently, particularly in Johannesburg.

“In the mornings we take orders from the taxi drivers and they won’€™t order from us if we don’€™t let them have sex with us,” said a woman who sells food in Johannesburg.

Other women reported that they weren’€™t allowed to sell to taxi drivers’€™ passengers unless they’€™d had sex with the driver, while some reported that men threatened to take their goods unless they had sex with them

However, some female traders also reported supplementing their incomes by selling sex.

“It is clear that sex is intertwined with the business of many informal sector female workers,” observes the report. “It is difficult to resist the additional money that it brings.”

Says one trader: “We are not prostitutes but we are constantly asked to have sex with customers. Some workers here often disappear around the corner for sex. Promiscuous workers often take a quick sex for some money. Sex must be quick.