Informal traders face a crisis as customers work from home

A local informal trader has spoken out on some of the issues they are facing, calling on the government and residents for help.

“All our attempts to save our businesses have failed,” Mary Ngema told Rekord.

“Our businesses are on the verge of collapsing and we do not know what to do.”

Ngema, who is also the secretary of the Tshwane Barekisi Forum, said their problems emanated from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our market base has significantly declined because less people are coming into the city centre.”

She said a large number of their customers were no longer buying their products.

“They work from home to limit the spread of coronavirus. Another reason is that our customers are not coming to the city centre anymore was that some had been retrenched.”

A huge influx of people joining the informal business sector “also rubs the salt into the wound” as it increases the competition among informal traders while customer levels are on the decline.

Ngema said before Covid-19 lockdown, existing “informal traders were denying new informal traders to operate their businesses in the city centre”.

They are, however, no longer denying them to join the sector because of the worse unemployment levels and poverty in the country.

The high levels of unemployment were worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic which crippled the already trembling economy and leading many people to lose their jobs, she said.

Ngema said with regards to the current environment in the country, denying new informal traders to operate was the same as denying them a right to live.

“We cannot chase them away because they have nowhere to go.”

While operating at a highly competitive environment seemed to be a massive problem for informal business owners, lack of entrepreneurial and management skills were also brought to light.

She revealed that their limited skills in managing their businesses and inability to correctly respond to problems affecting the businesses as a result of constantly changing external environment was a huge setback to hawkers’ businesses, she said.

“We are after all informal traders who need skills that would empower us to run our informal businesses effectively and develop them into formal businesses to make a significant contribution to the country’s revenue.”

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