The 83 women form part of a newly formed movement, named ‘women in business that symbolise power’. 

Chairperson of the movement and well-known community builder, Phomolo Raisa, tells OFM News that the coronavirus pandemic in the country highlighted the plethora of issues women in the area face. 

Many of the women in the movement became traders, due to a lack of employment opportunities in the township - considered one of the largest in South Africa - but were placed in a predicament towards the end of March 2020 as government instituted stringent lockdown regulations that initially barred them from trading at all.  

Following repeated complaints, the government amended the lockdown regulations in early April, to allow informal food traders to operate. 

This should have signalled the beginning of good news, but it did not. In light of the amended lockdown regulations,the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality requested all informal traders in Bloemfontein, Botshabelo, Thaba’ Nchu, Dewetsdorp and Wepener to apply for permits that will enable them to legally operate.  

According to the Mangaung advert, the informal traders were required to go to the regional office under which they fall, and present their identity document and proof of residential addresses to obtain the permits. However, this isn’t all they were required to do, in addition to this they were instructed to pay R297 for a certificate of acceptability (COA) and fork out a further R480 to have their businesses registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). To date, they are yet to receive their permits.

The women have requested representatives from the Free State Premier’s office and Mangaung Metro to receive their memorandum of demands today.  Raisa says the MEC of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA), Makalo Mohale, is expected to represent the provincial government at the demonstration.

Raisa says when you factor in transportation and the cost of paper work, you'll realise these women have lost out on money that they are yet to recoup. The bureaucracy around the issuing of trading permits and the registration of companies place the women in a catch-22 situation, in light of the lack of employment opportunities in the area. 

Raisa references the now-defunct warehouses that can be spotted from the N8 road outside Botshabelo that used to be run by Chinese companies. She makes an impassioned plea to the provincial government to help get those warehouses up and running again.

In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his State of the Nation Address that Botshabelo was one of 16 industrial parks countrywide that have undergone revitalisation to stimulate economic growth. Ramaphosa said the township had become productive again after being idle for so long. The other Free State area identified as one of the industrial parks selected for revitalisation is Phuthaditjhaba in the eastern part of the province. 

These townships and rural areas join Garankuwa, Isithebe, Komani and Seshego among others on the list. Ramaphosa stressed in his address that in order for the country to create jobs, certain levels of economic growth need to be achieved and this cannot be done without “massive new investment”.

OFM News