Self-Employed Women's Union, South Africa

Introduction

Self-Employed Women's Union (SEWU) is an independent trade union established in 1993 to represent the interests of self-employed and survivalist women engaged in the informal sector of the South African economy. SEWU is not affiliated with COSATU (South Africa's main labor union congress) because its members are women from different political parties. Pat Horn, a trade unionist, established SEWU when she realized that national and municipal governments, like the public at large, did not recognize the informal sector. Consequently, women workers in this sector were harassed by municipal authorities: their goods were frequently confiscated, their voices were not heard, and they had no bargaining power. They were not treated with dignity or respect.

Horn visited the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India, and inspired by her visit, established SEWU with help from volunteer unionists in the formal sector. A steering committee was formed and, in June 1994, SEWU was launched with 45 members. The steering committee quickly disbanded and handed over authority to a committee of SEWU members and Horn was employed as secretary/organizer/coordinator.

SEWU's main goal is the empowerment of self-employed women to organize themselves to demand recognition and support for the work they do. SEWU organizes women in different categories, including street vendors, home-based workers, subsistence farmers, cardboard collectors. Its members live in both rural and urban areas.

SEWU assists its members develop skills in leadership, negotiation, and lobbying so that they can address the relevant institutions and people directly with their concerns. SEWU also provides advice and assistance with problems such as lack of childcare, health issues, and social security. SEWU also facilitates members' access to a wide range of other organizations that provide social, legal, financial business, counseling services, and skills training. Increasingly, SEWU in involved with research into street vendors, home-based workers and the South African informal sector in general, a function that complements its grant-seeking work to obtain funding from government and international organizations to improve the situation of women working in the informal sector.

Currently, the key issue for SEWU is negotiating with municipal authorities in urban areas for better facilities to street vendors including toilets and clean tap water, shelters, storage, affordable overnight accommodation, safety, child play centers. In most areas, SEWU has had success, but in other areas negotiations continue. SEWU staff engage in the negotiations with members from the affected areas.

Economic difficulties

It is very difficult to organize the informal sector. There are many challenges, but SEWU works to overcome most of them. For survivalist street traders, time away from their sites, during trading hours, means lost income. The intense demands of work in the informal sector create the most basic barriers to establishing up and maintaining any trader's organization. Going to meetings--even taking time to talk to an organizer in the streets--is problematic. At the same time, the informal sector is vital to the country's economy. Street traders generate other informal employment:

• Barrow boys transport street traders' goods in wheelbarrows and supermarket trolleys between the trading site and the place where the goods are stored overnight;
• Street traders hire taxis to transport them and their goods to and from various places;
• General assistants help the owners of trading sites by minding the stall when they are away and, in exchange, they are allowed to share the site and to sell their own goods there

In addition to the difficulties created by economic conditions, SEWU's members also struggle to overcome the legacy of poverty, oppression, and other social issues. Among SEWU members, twelve percent have had no formal schooling at all. Another thirty-four percent obtained a level of education lower than Std 4; forty-eight percent obtained a level of education between Std 4 and Std 6; and seven percent obtained matric. SEWU supports its members efforts to obtain different skills. We encourage members to shift from traditional female tasks and learn skills like carpentry, block making, bricklaying, electricity, plumbing etc. We also support literacy skills for our members.

Women who received training in brick making, bricklaying, electricity, and upholstery are making their business viable. Among our members' most pressing problem is finding funding because it is difficult to obtain bank loans. Currently, our members get soft loans from the Land Bank and SEWU helps its members until their businesses are self-sustaining and able to develop other groups.

In addition to addressing economic and work-related issues, SEWU also conduct workshops for its members about South Africa's Constitution, their rights, and the HIV/AIDS prevention campaign. During transition from apartheid, many people were affected by violence. Some families lost their breadwinners, other close relatives, and even their homes. Most of our members live with trauma from political violence and the government counseling programs cannot reach all the areas where its services are needed. SEWU has a counseling effort that involves its members in memory cloth project.

After eight years of organizing, SEWU had offices in three provinces: Kwa-Zulu Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape with immediate plans to open two more in Orange Free State and Mpumalanga. By 2004, SEWU hopes to cover all nine South African regions. SEWU has achieved some of its goals, but a lot of work remains while the informal sector grows each day.