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Women drive Zimbabwe’s informal sector

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THE Zimbabwe government sparked a storm when it announced plans to tax informal traders through the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).

THE Zimbabwe government sparked a storm when it announced plans to tax informal traders through the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).

By Jackie Mbayiwa-Makuvatsine

It is estimated that at least $7,4 billion is circulating in the informal economy and the government has made a deliberate move to formalise operations in that market in fulfilment of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation provisions.

On April 3 2014, Small and Medium Enterprise and Co-operative Development minister Sithembiso Nyoni said the country was losing substantial amounts of money from this untapped sector.

She said this in the National Assembly while delivering a statement to apprise the House on what her ministry was doing to formalise the sector.

Informal traders’ organisations argued that the government had neither the power nor the right to tax them since it did not recognise them or engage them in any dialogue.

Research shows that this sector is sustaining the country and according to a Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency report of November 2012, Zimbabwe’s majority is now employed in the informal economy.

Part of the survey revealed that the currently employed population aged 15 years and above was estimated to be 5,4 million and of these, 84% were considered to be in informal employment, 11% in formal employment and 5% in employment not classifiable.

According to the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA), 67% of this fast growing sector are women.

The informal sector is sustaining the country’s economy and more than half of the people in the sector are women. It means women are driving the country’s economy. Lorraine Sibanda, a qualified teacher who left teaching in 2008 when Zimbabwe’s economy was going through a hard time, is now a full-time informal trader in Gwanda.

Sibanda is the Gwanda Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe leader and ZCIEA territorial president. She said the hard economic conditions in the country today could be felt by ordinary people who failed to put a meal on their tables because business was low.

“Poor remuneration for civil servants who used to buy or borrow from us and pay at the end of the month is affecting business. It is very worrying how the economy is faring at the moment,” said Sibanda.

She said there was a poor approach on economic policy formulation, adding that policy should be inclusive and consultative.

“It has been rumoured that we are going to be taxed,” said Sibanda.

“Why should we be taxed when we are not being recognised? The government does not see us as a formal group, neither do they acknowledge our existence or our contribution towards the country’s economy.”

She said before the government could start making noise about taxation, there should be recognition of the sector.

Sibanda argued that the government should look into the challenges the sector was facing and be the keeper instead of being the vulture, feeding on the dead bodies of informal traders.

“The government should create a conducive environment for informal traders, especially women to work on before they talk about tax,” fumed Sibanda.

According to Research Report No 117 of 2001, many women in Zimbabwe are in the informal sector as unpaid family workers. The Zimbabwe Government Report of 1991 says as far back as 1984, women in the informal sector constituted 64% compared to only 25% in the formal sector and this trend has continued over the years.

The report says over the years various attempts have been made by various authors to theorise the informal sector. Therefore, there is still need to have the exact number of women operating in the informal sector in Zimbabwe.

Women in Zimbabwe have always been key players in economic development, but have not been recognised. Ever since men started working in industries in towns, women would be working in the fields in the rural areas, that was the norm. Today this is shifting as women are usually heard saying: “I cannot live in the rural areas as if I am a plough.”

There is a paradigm shift in the way women are being treated, although there are some men whose families still live in the rural areas while they work in the big cities.

The introduction of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme in 1990 saw a shift in the welfare of both men and women. It is soon after this period that women started moving into towns to become informal traders, especially those who were less or not educated at all.

Some men were retrenched while others lost their jobs due to closure of companies or downsizing. This saw some women becoming cross-border traders to sustain their families.

It is common for women in Zimbabwe today to be cross-border traders, even those who are formally employed.

Some go as far as Tanzania, China and Dubai for the same purposes, but most of them are seen in the streets selling wares ranging from vegetables, socks, rat or cockroach poison and clothes.

Some sell second-hand clothes taken from Mozambique or are simply airtime vendors.

All these are making a crucial contribution to the country’s economy.

An informal trader along Robert Mugabe Way said she was taking care of the family ever since her husband lost his job.

She said she had four children whom she was taking care of.

“We have to work and sustain the family,” she said.

“Moreover, there are more women than men in our sector because men are very impatient. If you give up and get frustrated that the police are harassing you or that you are getting little profit, who will look after the family?

“Gone are the days when we used to sit at home while our husbands worked for us and took care of us.”

ZCIEA gender policy says there has never been significant engagement and consultation of informal economy workers on the National Economic Forum.

“It is, therefore, important that a gender-balanced approach be employed in coming up with lobby and advocacy teams from ZCIEA to engage government and other stakeholders on inclusive and consultative policy formulation processes which regulate and recognise the informal economy,” reads part of the policy.

The document says there is need for a gender policy in the organisation because, despite the progress that has been made towards the achievement of equality among Zimbabwean workers, informal economy workers’ concerns remain largely unaddressed.

“Gender integration in all ZCIEA work is necessity in line with the promotion and protection of women’s rights. The shift from ‘women only struggle’ to gender recognition seeks to desegregate women’s needs into the wider perspective.”

The policy states that in line with the affirmative action, the organisation will support integration of women in the informal economy internationally, regionally and at local level.

They will support the increased participation of women in decision-making in all spheres of economy.

An article in a local newspaper said because the informal sector was neither taxed nor monitored by the government, nor included in the gross national product, which is the market value of all products and services produced in a year by a country, it was one of the areas the government had serious challenges trying to control.

However, the challenge remains that the government does not fully identify with this sector as municipal police and the Zimbabwe Republic Police are always engaging in cat-and-mouse games with informal traders on the streets as they are said to be operating illegally.

Women, who evidently constitute most on the sector’s workers, have not been spared. Some bring their children with them into town as they cannot afford maids to look after them while they trade.

Zimra commissioner-general Gershem Pasi said the county’s laws were stifling the informal sector because of police raids and, therefore, destroying a “promising informal sector”.

He said the national tax collector was in the process of making the trading environment conducive for informal traders so they could contribute more to the country’s gross domestic product.

“We have a committee working with the Local Government (ministry) and they are looking at areas with decent potential for informal traders,” Pasi said.

“We don’t just want to harvest what the informal traders are making. We want to be there from the beginning.”

Pasi said the current situation did not make it attractive for informal traders to conduct business as municipal police were always disturbing the informal sector’s various areas of trade.

“The government should protect the informal sector through decent areas of trade and operating systems.”