Impact of the pandemic on informal workers in Durban: Stories from the street

Misiwe Maphumulo & Sarah Heneck A WIEGO-led COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy survey was conducted in 12 cities worldwide, with the aim of assessing the impact of the pandemic on informal workers.  Asiye eTafuleni (AeT) surveyed 185 informal workers across three sectors in Durban, namely, waste pickers, market traders and street traders. The COVID-19 pandemic … Read more

Silindokuhle Micro-Childcare Facility: Reviving hope for children of informally working mothers

Micro-childcare facility Brook Street by Jo Lees

Sarah Heneck AeTs childcare project which has been in the pipeline for the past 3 years (details available in the previous blogpost ) was unfortunately put on hold due to the COVID-19 induced nationwide lockdown which came into effect in March 2020. This was just weeks before the first childcare facility designed specifically to cater … Read more

67 wash stations for Mandela Day

As part of Asiye eTafuleni’s (AeTs) response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of interventions have been initiated which are aimed at helping informal workers to protect themselves from the coronavirus as they return to their workplaces. One of these interventions is the Geza Izandla (isiZulu for ‘wash your hands’) station. Frequent handwashing is an … Read more

Trader Leaders Engaging with Street-based Strategies in Addressing COVID-19 Challenges

Thuli Moyo On the 18th June 2020, leaders of informal trading committees gathered for their regular Kanyenathi meeting. Kanyenathi (which means ‘with us’ in isiZulu) is an established community forum which gives traders the opportunity to formally engage with the City regarding infrastructure and maintenance issues in their places of work. Notwithstanding the absence of … Read more

Reoccupation of Public Spaces

Sarah Heneck & Joanne Lees The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and the Department of Economic Development established a number of sector-based task teams in order to develop post-lockdown economic recovery strategies for KZN. One of the task teams focused specifically on the informal economy. Patrick Ndlovu, one of AeTs co-founders, was … Read more

Impacts of Coronavirus: Evolving challenges faced by informal workers

Sarah Heneck This is a follow on piece, tracking the impacts of coronavirus on the informal economy. Read the previous blog here. After almost 6 weeks of no income for the majority of informal workers in Warwick Junction, the move to lockdown level 4 offered a slight relief for those who are now able to … Read more

Geza izandla: handwashing interventions in Warwick Junction

Rebecca Plumbley As the national lockdown is gradually relaxed, AeT is preparing for the reoccupation of Warwick Junction. It is pressing to consider what a return to work might look like and to put occupational health and safety measures in place to protect both informal workers and their customers. In addition to the 6000 informal … Read more

Impacts of Coronavirus: An uncertain future for informal workers

Sarah Heneck The coronavirus (COVID-19) has made its way swiftly to all corners of the world and into all communities, but this pandemic disproportionately affects the most vulnerable members of society, in both health and economic terms (the latter will be the focus of this blog-post). Durban’s inner-city informal workers are some of most vulnerable … Read more