Page 11 - KZN Business Sense 8.1

REBUILDING THE LIVES OF ISIPINGO’S

MARKET HAWKERS

he Rebuilding for Hope the owners and their families (MEDP) commenced on Tuesday,
and Prosperity Initiative would face bleak prospects for 18 January 2022.
T(REHOP), which the future. Professor Shahida
comprises the Minara Chamber Chohan added that the Cassim, retired professor
of Commerce and six other reestablishment of a section of Entrepreneurship at the
Muslim NGOs in coalition, of the vibrant Isipingo market Graduate School of Business at
have worked jointly with the would allow the REHOP the University of KwaZulu-Natal
eThekwini Municipality to Initiative to upskill and empower will be coordinating and leading
rebuild the lives of Isipingo’s the traders as well. a six-month programme for 15
market hawkers, who for
decades have worked cheek-by- Ebrahim Patel, director of the traders. “We have conceptualised
a developmental intervention for
jowl providing an invaluable Minara Chamber of Commerce 15 selected informal traders and
and affordable service to the said that the traders – who had a maintenance programme for
local community. no other source of income – were
not only breadwinners, but small the 38 more beneficiaries,” she
A section of the iconic Isipingo business owners who made a said, adding that they had used a
market, central to the very fabric vital contribution to the local diagnostic to identify those with
and history of the area south of economy. aspiration and a readiness to learn. ■ The Micro Loan Programme.
Durban was destroyed in the “The traders, many of them We have conceptualised a This coordinated initiative
2021 lootings that devastated REHOP has entered the third women, will be empowered with comprehensive multidimensional
parts of the province. phase of rebuilding the Isipingo intervention with three will ensure that we rebuild and
Fresh Produce Market, with skills that will enhance their components over the long term: launch these microenterprises
Spokesperson for the a training and development entrepreneurial self-efficacy and to the next level thereby
group, Shabir Chohan, said intervention that will see a cohort their operational effectiveness. ■ The Micro Enterprise contributing to a more
that micro-businesses were of 15 selected traders move their Expert facilitators have been Development Programme inclusive and just economy. 
marginal profit enterprises that enterprises forward to the next identified and will work under (MEDP)
provided a basic income, and level. The Micro Enterprise my supervision during the six- ■ The Maintenance Programme
that without these enterprises, Development Programme month programme.” (MP) and https://youtu.be/HpqDZa5L2AM

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