Download PDFOn Thursday, 26 October 2023, my colleague, Tshepo, and I took a walk around the House of Movements building located at No.123 Pritchard Street, Johannesburg. A very busy street indeed with many different types of businesses that would sometimes be categorised within the informal economies sector.
Despite the chaos on the street, we were aware that there was a form of order between these various businesses. This was confirmed when conducting my two interviews. The interview consisted of basic questions concerning the issue of safety and security within the inner city of Johannesburg. Crime was the number one issue that came up.
Shoemaker and owner of Martins & Sons, a store located on Pritchard Street, told us that his business is not doing well because of the issue of crime within the city. He said, “I lost customers because they are afraid to come to the city and buy from me.”
He added, “We have seen people harming other people, such as stabbings, and they get arrested for one day and the next day they are out… What do you call that? For what reason should this person be part of our community.” To him, this is why the crime problem will not be resolved anytime soon.
This article was syndicated from Workers World.org (https://www.workers.org/) and was originally published on 26 October 2023. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the author, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article (https://www.workers.org/2021/05/56296/).
