Sithulisile Moyo The ILO reported that around 2 billion people in the world work in the informal economy. That is more than 61% of the world’s economically active population. In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the informal employment ratio is well above 80%. In developed countries it is only around 18%. The informal economy secures … Read more
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
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
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
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
Toni Ottanelli-Gale As the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic reached South Africa, the nation mobilised swiftly and implemented necessary measures to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 cases. Despite broad awareness of COVID-19, an understanding of the way the virus spreads and mechanisms to prevent transmission of this highly contagious virus, were limited This is particularly … Read more
Emma Castaños & Teresa de Figueiredo (Feature image: Phumelele Mkhize) Smiling faces, cake, and sparkling juice greeted us at our first staff meeting. The Asiye eTafuleni (AeT) team had put together a small celebration; not for us, the newly arrived MIT group, but for the service of Lihle on her last day of work. Lihle … Read more
Tasmi Quazi This article is the second part of a reflection piece of our work in 2016 and after much deliberation, we selected 16 major events or projects to highlight, much of which is continuing into the present year. Part 1 covered organisation milestones such as new funding support, project achievements particularly those breaking new … Read more
Tasmi Quazi As AeT concluded 2016, it provided the opportune moment to reflect on our organisation and our work. We identified over 20 things on a list, but will share the top 16, wide-ranging events and project work which have impacted and continue to impact the organisation: 1. Cape Town @Work: AeTs’s replicability AeT delivered … Read more
