Pretoria - Females in the City of Tshwane who earn their living by trading informally on the streets marched to Tshwane House and the Union Buildings accusing the City of letting them down in the middle of Women's Month.
They gathered on Church Square before taking to the streets of Pretoria under the banner of Informal Traders Women in Action and halted traffic to show their disapproval of the City's decision not to fund a skills sharing and development workshop that would bring together informal traders in Tshwane.
Chairperson Lily Sambo said the women approached the City which asked for a formal proposal and just when they thought everything was done and their event would take place on August 31, officials suddenly tip-toed around them.
She said: "We submitted everything they wanted and then they created a programme for us. They said they would create an agenda as well and then suddenly they went quiet on us and everyone was giving us the run-around.
"That was when we became fed-up and went to Tshwane House to confront the Group Head of Economic Development Benjamin Manasoe who after some hours was able to get back to us and inform us that the City said it could not fund our event because it did not have a budget.
"Firstly we are angry because they led us on and when they could not deliver they all just avoided us. Even when we confronted Manasoe we could see he knew all along but felt guilty and did not want to disappoint us and tell us face to face.
"We are women from all seven regions of Tshwane and this event was going to help us engage and exchange skills under this Covid-19 pandemic.
"We were also going to assist each other, especially those informal traders who could not survive the impact of that harsh level 5 lockdown. So many other people were going to benefit because among us we have youth and also men who need development.
"We feel like the City does not respect us nor take us seriously and that is why we are also going to march to Union Buildings to say to President Ramaphosa you always address us about the importance of offering support to small businesses but here in your own backyard informal traders are neglected yet informal traders in the Sedibeng Municipality received R7 500 Covid-19 relief packages."
Sambo said informal traders in Tshwane were not taken seriously enough and still lacked essentials like ablution facilities, storing and trading infrastructure, and the freedom to trade without harassment in their own City.
City Chief of Staff Jordan Griffiths said there must have been a break of communication somewhere because the City actually responded to their proposal to fund their workshop and stated that it could not afford it at this particular time.
"They wanted us to fund a workshop to the tune of R500 000 and we did not have that kind of budget. We actually responded and we have emails to that fact.
Griffiths added that the City also does not have a fund for relief of the informal traders and if there was such a relief fund it would come from provincial or national government as the City predominantly focuses on service delivery.
Pretoria News