From the mid-1990s Zimbabwe faced an economic crisis which included the decline in industrial and agricultural production, hyperinflation, the introduction of a multi-currency monetary system, the collapse of the formal economy, and rapid economic informalisation, especially in urban areas (Raftopoulos 2009). The paper looks at the impact of economic informalisation on political subjectivities of people who started working informally. In particular, it looks at informal sector organisations (ISOs) as newly emerged political and civic actors which became particularly active and visible from 2014. There is an academic debate about the possibility of political influence of ISOs (formulated in Lindell 2010) with some scholars (e.g. Brown and Lyons in Lindell 2010) suggesting that ISOs are exclusive and marginalising themselves and cannot exercise political influence, and other (e.g. Prag in Lindell 2010) arguing that in particular contexts they can achieve tangible political results. This paper argues that in Zimbabwe ISOs emerged as critical political players since they have a strong impact on their members’ political subjectivities, i.e. people’s understanding of themselves in the state with relation to the government, local authorities, political parties, and protest movements. The study is based on the interviews with ISO leaders and members, local authorities, and civil society players in Zimbabwe in June-September 2016, official documents of ISOs, mass media, and social media sources.
The informal sector has been marginalised by the government, local authorities, and political parties (e.g. through the destruction of informal marketplaces, eviction of vendors from the city centre, and public discourse stigmatising the informal sector as ‘undesirable’, ‘filthy’, and threatening the public health). Also, there are partisan patronage networks with the ruling party capturing marketplaces, the history of political violence towards opposition supporters, political polarisation, and politicisation of the informal sector. These factors create a highly marginalising environment for people in the informal sector.
In this context ISOs emerged which claim to represent the informal sector. There are three largest non-partisan ISOs: the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA), National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (NAVUZ), and Zimbabwe Informal Sector Organisation (ZISO). Although their activities are similar (e.g. business, constitutional awareness training as well as lobbying and advocacy), they shape distinct collective identities and political subjectivities based on distinct notions of citizenship.
Combating marginalisation, members of all three ISOs engage in nongovernmental everyday politics, i.e. small-scale citizen-driven political actions for self-help and survival. It includes community-based informal micro-credit schemes, funeral societies, collective action to confront partisan patronage networks, and mutual support in case of harassment by the authorities. Still, ISOs attempt to engage the authorities but do not expect any significant change in their approach.
There are nuances to the political subjectivities in the ISOs as they shape different notions of citizenship understood as belonging to a political community. ZCIEA is linked to the trade unions and its members view it as a trade union for the informal sector that gives them a sense of belonging to a powerful organisation and protection from violation of their rights. The paper suggests that ZCIEA shapes a collectivity-based notion of citizenship as ZCIEA members feel more empowered since they belong to ‘ZCIEA family’. NAVUZ has become a social movement of the informal sector that demands recognition of the informal sector by the authorities and de-marginalisation of the notion of vending. NAVUZ is the only ISO members of which appeal to their constitutional rights and use the rights-based notion of citizenship. ZISO promotes entrepreneurship and business skills and its members proudly refer to themselves as businessmen/women and entrepreneurs, and view the informal sector as equal to the formal sector. ZISO shapes the notion of citizenship based on ‘respectability’ that is denied to the informal sector.
In sum, non-partisan ISOs in Zimbabwe demonstrate important processes. Being non-partisan, they remain political by influencing political subjectivities of people and shaping specific notions of citizenship in the informal sector. This tells us that the informal sector politics is more nuanced and subtle than partisan struggles and patronage. Rather, ISO members demonstrate that there is the associational life which is meaningful to them and which impacts their perceptions of themselves within the urban space and the political systems of the city and the state.
References:
B. Raftopoulos, ‘The Crisis in Zimbabwe, 1998-2008’, in B. Raftopoulos and A.S. Mlambo (eds), Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the Pre-Colonial Period to 2008, (Harare, Weaver Press; Johannesburg, Jacana Media, 2009), pp. 201-202.
I. Lindell (ed), Africa Now: Africa’s Informal Workers: Collective Agency, Alliances and Transnational Organizing in Urban Africa, (London and New York, Zed Books, 2010).