|
PDF of march flier
2nd floor, Export
House, West St., Sandton, Johannesburg. Tel: 011 883 5843;
fax: 011 884 5672
MEDIA
RELEASE
25 August 2002
MASS
MARCH TO SUMMIT:
Street
Hawkers Demand Freedom to Trade
TIME: 10am, Wednesday 28 August 2002
DEPART: GEORGE LEA PARK, Cor. William Nicol Drive and
Sandton Drive
END: Speaker's Corner, Sandton Convention Centre
Chairperson: Churchill Mrasi
Contact: Leon Louw, executive member and march co-ordinator,
083-212-8009
Informal traders,
accompanied by local and foreign sympathisers, will march
to the Sandton Convention Centre to submit a memorandum in
defence of freedom to trade.
This mass action
is the first phase of a sustained campaign by the newly-formed
Informal Business Forum (IBF) for recognition and respect.
We seek integration
of informal business into the mainstream of the economy. We
call for recognition of the role that the informal sector
plays in the fight against poverty. Thousands of South Africans
regarded as unemployed are in fact economically active and
productive as shebeeners, street traders, spaza operators,
farmers, and the like.
The international
community and local political leaders need to be aware of
the fact that we will no longer tolerate apartheid-style oppression
of the trading masses.
The plight of Sandton
hawkers as a example of how poor people were shunted aside
shamelessly to "clean the streets" and called "security
risks", to create an artificial sanitized impression
of our country and Africa for, perversely, a world summit
on "sustainable development". Their treatment is
symbolic of a culture of intolerance and disrespect towards
the poor by elitist privileged stakeholders, who claim to
be champions of development for the world's poor.
Johannesburg city
fathers decided to target informal businesses because they
are embarrassed by what they regard as an eyesore - instead
of facilitating secure rights, decent trading stalls, protection
from bad weather, and security - no spending on street trading
facilities in five years, but spending on abusive anti-hawker
squads, and hundreds of "No Hawking" signs all over
the city.
On Wednesday, we
have a clear message for Johannesburg, South Africa and the
World: Johannesburg, and many towns and cities in South Africa
and other third world countries, pay lip service to development
for the poor. We demand freedom and support for real development
of those willing to help themselves. No more money for apartheid-style
policies!
At the end of the
march, at Speakers Corner, local and international leaders
will make brief public statements, and the IBF Memorandum
will be handed to a nominated WSSD representative and made
available to the media on Wednesday.
|
