Manager for Economic Growth Helps Informal Sector to Excel Moses Mlangeni walks us through the services that Drakenstein Municipality provides to informal traders
The Municipality acknowledges the importance of an enabled, well-supported and dynamic informal sector in Drakenstein. Therefore, this section of its Economic Growth and Tourism Division helps ensure that economic development projects are well implemented and that the community reaps the rewards. Drakenstein Municipality’s Manager for Economic Growth, Moses Mlangeni, accompanied Vars to New Street, the central hub for informal trading in Paarl, to give readers a glance at the services the Municipality render. New Street hosts more than 40 informal traders, all under the guard of the Municipality’s Economic Growth and Tourism division. On a cold winter’s morning, Vars “set up shop” alongside the vendors for a look into their world. Here, Moses introduced us to some of the vendors, such as Shiehaam Benjamin, Paarl Hawkers’ Secretary. “For 32 years I stood in Lady Grey (Street) until they gave the Kiosks to us. That was when I switched over to food, to work more with the public and with our own people.” Shiehaam is a seasoned community representative and is trusted with the interests of the informal traders. “We rely on informal traders such as Shiehaam to keep us informed. She is a very important
Moses Mlangeni, Manager for Economic Growth at Drakenstein Municipality, at the New Street kiosks in Paarl.
member of the trading community. She is a leader and she is part of the Informal Traders’ Association. So we communicate with her quite often,” Moses says as he introduces this matriarchal figure within the community to us. Regulating traders is one aspect of the job for which Moses must be able to rely on leaders such as Shiehaam to play their part. The trust
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VARS | July
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