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I. INTRODUCTIGN : SWAZILAND STUDY
Swazilen:', Iand-Iocked between South Africa Ilm1 Mozambique, is one of the smallest countries in Africa. It has 11 population of some 600,000, sakl to be r,rowinr; at about 3.4 per cent. According to the latest Development Plans, approximately 47 per cent of the total population is under 15 years (4tH National Development Plan, 1987/88 , (6).
Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa as indicated by the ILO/JASPA (1977) report to the Government of Svmozitnnd entitled "Reducinr; Dependence", arid many other independent works. ThUS, the country "receives almost 95 per cent of its imports from South Africa with which it shores a monetary and customs union" (Russel, 1986 : 1). The country aiso exports an estimated 25,000 people as labour mainly to South African mines. In the event of a contraction in the South African economy, this would have a significant implications for the Swazi economy for data indicates, as we shall see shortly, that the Swazi economy would not be able to abscrd most of the Swazis now working in South Africa.
Stephen (1986 : 1(4) notes that "since the late 1970s Swazi economy has shown constant although fluctuating gI'l'wth in Gross Domestic Product (aDP) with an equally fluctuating but constantly rising inflation rate". Thus in the latter part cf the 1970s according to the World Bank estimates, the Swazi economy experienced a "show-down with the GDP f'rowinp: at a factor cost averaging only 2 per cent••• After 1987, it seems that a recovery began mainly through expansion in the construction, sucnr and pulp ln.tustrles" (ILO/SATEP, 1982 : 8).
However, because of the depen<jence on South Africa (which has been experiencing problems consequent to falling prices of gold), the recovery experienced by the Swazi economy has not been sustained, as evidenced by the fact that "In relative terms, the formal sector's share of employment has decreased compared to the non-formal sector over the plan period" (1983/84, 1987/88 : 8).
It is further noted in this plan that "Industrial developemnt has been particularly affected"
because, South Africa, being more economically advanced, is more capable of attracting and retaining new industries through its larger markets and financial and commercial support systems" (loc, cit: 52).
In other words, even though the Swazi economy has not as yet experienced serious problems, there are signs that, unless serious measures are taken to restructure the economy, uneasy times lie ahead. Again, it is observed in the 4th Development Plan that "Due to high population growth rate and the youthfllll"age structure of the population', the demand for formal sector jobs will continue to outstr-ip the supply of formal sector jobs' (IbkJ : 81). In short, there are mdications that unemployment, albeit slight, is on the increase. In a few years, if not arrested, this could become a major problem. For example, Metsebula reports that, "en the basis of the information collected by means of the pre-Iiminary questlonnaire.s. the mean unemployment rate (t.e., those Iookinr: for a job as a proportion of total adults) among low-income urban households was 17.7 per cent (1\186,10).
II. THE INFORMAL SEeTOn IN SWAZILAND
To understand the nature of the problem, one confronts in tryinr to study the informal sector in Swaziland, it is instructive to open this report by quoting from the latest Swaziland National Development Plan (4th National Development PiM, 1987/88 : 80) where it is stated:
;'. lev
Far;e 65
- "The nature of non-formal sector employment Including type of activity, hours worked, level of remuneration, sex cistribution an,] amount of under employment, is unknown•••
until f\ household income/expenditure survey is undertaken it is not possible to generalise on the employment and income conditions of the non-formal sector, nor is it possible to make comparisons between non-formal and formal sectors of the economy.
Thus, with the exception of the handicraft industry, which has received a great deal of attention from many quarters, informal sector in Swazrlanr; remains largely a virgin territory.
Extensive searches by the UN, Government Ministries, Swaziland University's, Social Science :i.esearch Unit and discussions with its Director (Dr. Brown) and with Dr. rwssel, who has carried out extensive researches on Swazi socio-economic life, revealed that the only major work done on the informal sector in Swaziland is by Dr. Matsebula of the Economics Department of University of Swaziland. This work concentrated on the urban informal sector. Very little is known of nonfarm economic actlvttcs, except those per-taining to handicraft production for local and export markets. The only other contribution to our knowledce of informal sector in Swaziland is a short paper (14 pages) hy Nxurnalo (lfJG2) which concentrates exclusively on Manzini and deals only with beer brewing, We shall return to this later.
Our personal observations and ILO cata indicate that the informal sector in Swaziland is extremely small. ILC isolates five factors to account for the microscopic nature of the informal sector in Swazllano, even though as elsewhere in low-income industries, indications are that the informal sector is r:rowinc. These five factors are (1) the small size of Swazi urban centre - there are only two large cities, Mt'aLlane (the capital) and Manzini and even these are of relatively recent origin; (2! the fact that "the c'evelopment of the formal sector which often encourages the frowth of the informal sector throuzn linkages effects, is also of recent origin in Swaziland"; (3) open unemployment has not been of serious rnagnituoej (4) the proximity of the well developed economy of South Africa has Inhlbited the c1evelopment of local enterprises. Thus, "almost all consumer goods, ready made clothes and small manufactures have been freely imported from South Africa into Swaziland leaving little scope for local entrepreneurs to take the initiative •••"; and (5) the fact that trading licenses are hard to f;et
while training facilities arein short sUl'~ly. .
This section gives a brief summary of the Matsebula's findinp;s on the urban informal sector in Swaziland, which he terms UIS. The following table indicates the number and the type of activities in his survey.
':....
Par,e 66
Table I
BUSINESS UNITS IN SAMPLE
Activity Code
2.
3.
4.
5.
G.
7.
Source
Description
sewing , knittinr. & tai lorrnr-Handicrafts & traditona l attire
All other food
Shoes & leather items Meta l work
Wood work Other
All activities pooled toe.ether Matset.ul a (19D7 ?, 5; ..
N° of Units
211
76
92
so
28 26 25 636
16of Total
33.2
23.3 14.5 4 .. 7
4.1 3
.
(1"lOO.n
It is oLvious from the alcove table that activities 1,2,3 anc 4 dominate Swazi's urban informal sector with a total of ,,:2.0 'per cent ,)1 all the units. Furthermore, these activities are dominated l.y women as shown l'y the followin« table.
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"
Table II
,DISTidBUTICH OF PROPHIETOIW BY SEX Activity
Code
Male Female tetel
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Source
SewinF~1 knittinc tail orin? 5.7 94.3 100.0
Handicraft an\1 tracJitional
attire 17.1 82.9 100.0
Fruits,& vegetables retail 9.5 90.5 ' ,lOO.(} "
All other Food 9.8 90.2 100.0
Shoes & Leather items 76.7 23.3 100.0
;,.'' '
Metal work 100.0 0.0, ' 100.0'
Wook work 92.3 7.7 100.n ' j
Other 56.0 44.0 100.0
All activities pooled together 21.5 78.5 100.0
Matsebul a , ( 1986 : 12).
It is again interesting to note that as in all other countries reported on, even in Swaziland where the informal"sectQf is at an early stage of developernnt the traeJitonal division of labour is entrenched. Thus, women preponcerate in the, food 'sectors, sewing" knitting and handicraft.
On the other hand, metal work is the exclusive preserve cfmales - h$re; there is not 11 single woman. WI'tile only 7.7 per cent of the women in the sample venture into wood-work, it is a surprisingly high percentage compared to other countries which.include this venture., .
The explanation given by Matsebula, for his findings are similar to those found elsewhere, e.g, skill requirements, ease of entry, and the fact that women are home-markers (lac. cit , 11-13) and so on.
III. GENEHAL CHAnACTElUSTICS OF THE INFORMAL SECT;)!' A. !;'lumber of Children
Matsebula found that the households which had a member participating in the informal sector tended to have, on the average, more chiloren than the households which did not. ' Thus;' 42.4 per cent ofthe households had less than 2 children 35.6 per cent had 2 to 4 children and
22.0 per cent have children more than 4. He concludes, therefore that not only do UIS proprietors have, an average, a liit(her numcer of children in their households (as compared to low-income unban households as a whole), but they also have a distribution skewed towards hiRher number's (p.17). He attributes this finding to the fact that households with more children are more likely to seed extra means of augumentlnz their incomes. However, data on the number of children in an African setting must always be viewed with caution because there seems to be a "eneral tendency to under report, especially when responding to formal questionnaires. Also; most of his activities (and therefore,--mosfof the respondents) are dominated by operators in the age bracket 35-54 (p.13) who are more likely to have had more children than respondents belcw
this age F(rOup.
B. Education
Compared to Kenya and Zambia, it appears that informal sector operators in Swaziland have higher levels of education. Thus, Matsebula reports that most of his respondents have hac at least primary school education; and that thirty per cent, twenty five per cent and slightly more than forty two per cent of those. in shoe ancJ leather work, metal work, and wood work respectively, have had secondary education. These are the activities dominated by male prorietors, which points to the relatively high skill intensity in male oriented activities.
This is compared to 39.8 per cent, 14.5 per cent, 19.5 per cent and 21.7 per cent (p, 18) of those in sewing, knitting, and tallorlng (the latter being more likely to be dominated by men would account for the high 39.8 per cent reported for this category), handicraft and traditional attire, fruit and vegetable trade and all other food, respectively, which are dominated by female participants, From this data, it is clear that women on the average have less education than their male counterparts in Swaziland'S informal sector.
C. Levels of Incomes in the Urban Informal Sector
According to Matset.ula (11187 , 11) "the overall mean value of output (for all the business units taken together) is E 245.95 per month. The highest proportion (22.5 per cent) of business unit produce output is valued at less than E 50 per month, whereas the smallest proportion (13.2 per cent) produce output is valued at E 500 or more per month. About two thirds produce output was valued at less than E 200 month" (p.Ll ), Thus; -"the overall means per capital income (for
all
the business units taken together) is E 55.26 per indnth... However, two thirds of the business units receive per capital incomes less than E 50 permonth•.• Hence per capital incomes are low for most of the UlS (urban informal sector) as compared to' the rest of the economy".Even though Matsebula does not indicate the business units which yield the lowest per capital income, it seems reasonable to conclude that these would ~)e businesses mostly in "the community
of the poor" where women preponderate. .
D. Infrastructural Facilities
Matsebula (1987,30) reports that "slighfly more than half of the business units do not have any electricity, water and toilet facilities inside their work premises". As noted elsewhere in these reports, lack of basic amenities can be a real problem as public facilities especially toilets, are generally not conveniently available in low-income countries. Lack of these facilities mean that the operators, especially the one-man/woman business may have to close the business and walk long distances in search, of water or conveniences. This then, becomes an important constraint to business operations.
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Finally, Matset.ula notes there is the car-Ital investment problem which he argues confronts most operators. Ap;ain, as elsewhere, the most important sources of funds are own savings, usually very slender indeed, and secondly "loans or equity from family members, relatives and friends. Whilst the opportunity cost of funds from these two sources is, on the average, lower than that from other sources.•. the availability is low by virture of the low household incomes from which IUS operators come" (Ibic').
IV. SWAZI WOMEN IN WAGE EMPLOYMENT
SWllzi women participate more in private and public sector employment than their counterparts in either Kenya or Zambia. Thus, "twenty four ;;er cent of all employees in the private sector are women" (Lussel, 1386,4) the majority of whom are unskilled workers. "The rest are to be found in the r.rof'essions ano clerical jobs. Hussell (Ibid, 6) notes that "the average female wage in private sector is 65.4 per cent that of men, but this avernge masks grosser discrepancies at nearly eve,ry level because of the predominance ofvunskilleo male workers in the labour force. Despite the vovernment's affirmation of 'he rie;ht of women to equal pay for equal work, there is an enduring expectation of lower pay for work done by women, of
which employers are quick to take advantage". '
-As elsewhere, it seems that if there is disequilirlum in the economy (e.g. recession), we should expect women to be more badly affected than men. Hussel notes that "predictably", the recession of 1981-2 affected both and proportionatelv more women than men's as. shown in the table below. This is because "women's rijrnt to be raid work is-seen .as less legitimate than men's. In times of recession, men's jobs are preserved in response to their more firmly asserted right to employment, Despite the lower cost, women are more easily laicl off and with fewer reprecussions than men" (Icussel, Ibid).
Table III
THE EFFECT CF HECESSICN1981-2 eN EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN THE FIUVATE SECTCE
Men Women All workers
Source, Eussel (19[;6
Humtcrs in, 1081 42,830 14,413 57~-243
42,028 12,717
54,775
19HZ as % of 1981 98 %
95.7 %
In the public sector, the story is similar. Thirty per cent of all formal wage employment
IS In the public sector compared to 70 per cent in the private sector, an unusual situation for a low-income country where most of the wage-employment in the formal sector is usually public, Here, women account for 27 per cent 'of workers in this sector, and dominate professions (teaching anc nursing) and in clerical jobs. Ar-ain, nussel (p.7) notes that "men predominate in the fewer, better-pair' administrative jobs ... (women's) earnings are only 72 per cent of those of men in prefessional and technical grades am]90.4 per cent of those of men in clerical ?Tades".
The private sector should presumably follow the government's lead in employment policy.
Since women are discriminated artainst in the pUblic sector, it is not surprislng that they would also be discriminated against private sector emplcyment.
V SWAZI WOMEN IN THE INFCHMAL SECTOn
Most of the work, done on Swazi women has been directed towards income-generating activities in the rural areas. The handicraft sector is covered under this umbrella. This is cespite the small size of the country which means a massive network of interaction between people in the rural und urban areas. The only rna'01' and general work on women in Swaziland, is the UNICEF's (Armstrong A. and Russel M. 1036 "a situation analysis of women in Swaziland.
After noting that, "there is 11 serious lack of data on women in Swaziland", they conclude "the most frustrating problems encountered in collectirut data for this paper was that most official statistics arc not broken daWn as by sex" (i,J.93) (emphasis added).
However, despite 'the paucity of data on women in the informal sector in Swaziland, what does exist, and other fragmentary evidence, points to a predominance of women in this sector. For example, we have already noted that Matsebula's substantial work on Swazi's informal sector reports that women constitute arnost 80 per cent of all the operators. While Green and Makhut that 45 per cent of traditional healers, out of an estimated 5,442, are women (Russel, cp, cit : 13). Also, many rural household and homestead surveys, such as those carried ostitute ut by UNICEF (1378/1;)[;9 and 18[:5), Russel et al (1984), Ntshinctla (H)()4), the various articles in de Vrettcr, et al (eds), Low (H)31) Tabibian (Hl83) among others, show that women are heavily involved in the informal sector.
Women in the Urban Informal Sector
Tra(Jinf regulations in Swaziland (i.e, those pertaining to Iicensing) are stringent. We were therefore infc:rmed that most of informal sector activities arc probably "hidden". Thus, many women in wage earning employment also have a small business on the side carried out either in householc's or in rented premises, Others are hawkers and peddlers of all sorts of items, some have licenses others clo not. The latter face constant police harassment in Swaziland and in South Africa, for women constantly travel in large numbers between the two countries for trading purposes,
Visits to Mbabane and Manzini markets, and along the various hishways, indicate a predominance of women in fruit and veGetable trade, handicrafts, dressmaking, knitting, hairdressing, sale of cooked food, and the like. Women also sell secondhand clothers bought from African markets.
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Another activity engaged in by many women but for which only scanty data exist, is beer brewing. During our visits to low-income neighbourhoorJs of Mbabane (on I.l Saturday afternoon), we saw many people in different parts of the city sitting around drinking beer.
We were told that this was a popular pastime among men in urban centres in Swaziland after work and during the weekends, (as in Kenya and Zambia) and also in rural homesteads. In a 1973/79 survey by UNICEF, 41 women said they earned extra income form beer brewing, which they reported as presenting "very little problem as it was brewed and sold locally" (p.1S).
However, In the same survey, Some women complained of "drukenness of husbands resulting in lack of support and irresponsibility" (p.24). While an ILO report (Russel, 1983:13) observes the fact that beer brewing, not an insignificant informal sector source of income for women,
"may become troublesome in that it entails an invasion of the homestead t.y unruly customers.
In some parts ofthe country it had been banned by chief or church".
Nxumalc (1932) reports on beer brewing in Manzinl, In that study, she reports the following : that all the brewers, in her non-probability sample of 25, were females; that the women had very little education; that half of the parents of the brewers did not engage in this trade; the women were, on the average, 36 years old; 1() out of a total of 25 we~e either single; unmarried or neglected wives and all were living with their children; and that "they Were usually supporting . between four and six children", One single parent Who was disabled supported 9 children, some
of whom were now involved in the trade (Nxumals, Ibid:9).
Some of the women in' Nxumalo's sample had other sources of income. For example, one said she also madedoylies and bed spreads which she sold to some big companies. She had at the time of the study applied for a license to sell vegetables (p.12).
Women complained of the competition in this trade. One woman said when she started in 1976 she made between E.40 anc E.50 J;cr day (compare this to the mean per capital income . per month, of E.50 in informal sector discussed earlier), but that sales had drastically fallen
as other women joined the trade.·
Another persistent complaint by female brewers was lack of support by their husbands when the marriage had been extant. For instance, one woman in this survey said that her husband gave her E.5.00 per month to support a family of 4 children (p.13). Another. woman complained of a husband who could not support her and the children, but "expects me to cook, wash and serve him With brew I make. He refuses to give me money for groceries - I get maize (for brewing) from my people" (p.tt), .
Nxumalo reports that some of the women in her sample lived in the rural areas. Such
Nxumalo reports that some of the women in her sample lived in the rural areas. Such