Informal traders unhappy over increase in sextortion in their trade

WILD hosted a women’s round table with young women in different informal trades like vendors, bakers, and cross-border traders. These women shared their plight, highlighting the challenges they face in their operation, and the common challenge that was highlighted was that of sextortion. Speaking during the round table, Juliet Samson highlighted that they experience sextortion as female traders.

“As a female informal trader, there are a lot of challenges we face in this patriarchal society we operate in. The COVID-19 period exposed a lot of anomalies that have been normalized by society. In order to cross the border, officials will often ask female informal traders to pay bribes or pay in kind. If you don’t do those things, you won’t get the services.  That is sextortion at its best and it’s sad that a lot of females are now conforming out of desperation,” said Samson.

Commenting on this contribution, Jacqueline Ndlovu argued that it’s not only officials that do that but even bus drivers too.

“To get any service, you would have to pay, and we, as females, are unfortunate because we are required pay in kind. Even the smallest thing you want, for example, for the bus driver to let you get in with your bag, he would ask you to pay using these taboo methods. I have stood my ground when faced with that situation, and they know me at the border as a woman who does not tolerate such,” said Ndlovu.

Women in attendance related to some of these issues as they or people around them face these abuses day in day out in their operations. In giving recommendations women expressed that they should join hands and fight this new norm.

“Alone I cannot, but together we can. Let’s fight this new cancer that is eating us and speak out against such abuses. We cannot normalise these violations as women. We should also think of our kids, who can also be victims of this system,” said Perseverance Nyathi.

Sibusisiwe Dube closed the session by imploring women to stand up against gender-based violence in all its forms, not only during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence but throughout the whole year.