Sunday, April 19, 2015

“Pay your ‘sellers tax’ but don’t sell here.”

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." - Mahatma Ghandi

There’s a Freetown City Council (FCC) by-law that says traders/sellers must not sell on several, specified streets in downtown Freetown. It’s probably not obvious to folks who visit the “central business district” or the downtown city core. Many streets are lined with street sellers – selling everything from phones to underclothes… from groundnuts to watermelons.

Personally, I love this kind of street shopping… and can usually find anything I really need… belts, vests, novels, phone cases, money changers, soaps, shoes, et cetera. In fact, I almost prefer shopping on the street over the few grocery stores and electronic shops frequented by ex-pats. When I buy something on the street, I know it’s going to help pay school fees for children, buy food for families, pay medical expenses and support some of the most vulnerable sectors of this society.

Hawa is a young friend who sells scented sprays and shoe polish on a street corner. She works beside Fatmata, Lovette, Zainab and Mary, who also sell assorted goods from small, plastic bowls or baskets. It takes Hawa an hour and a half every morning to get to work… and she begins her long commute home at 5:30 (just before the restriction on any sales after 6:00 PM). The women are there – reliably – on the corner, every day but Sunday.

The economic reality for most street sellers is pretty grim. Hawa’s profits are between 30-50,000Le per week (about $10). Hawa spends 4,000Le each day (just under $1) on transportation to and from her corner. She spends 5,000Le per day ($1) on food while she works. She often drinks 1,000Le worth of packet-water every day. Most days, she says, she adds an oral rehydration solution (ORS) to her water to replenish the moisture she loses under the sun. The ORS powder costs 500Le. Hawa and the others pay 300Le per day in City taxes levied against all street sellers.

The City taxes are collected by an obnoxious older man, Mr. Alusine they call him, who carries no identification, wears no uniform and wanders the streets collecting 300Le from anyone he catches. He dolls out a small “ticket” of paper that’s marked with the day’s date… Does he submit these Leones to the city coffers? He offers no explanation… but I suspect he’s a brother of someone who works at the City… and collects this money for his own use.

Hawa and the other women’s largest expense for the day are the bribes paid to Freetown City Council Municipal Police… who harass the women, “arrest” their market – taking baskets and bowls to the Police Station, or capturing them and imprisoning them overnight. Most of the time, the women cough up between 20-50,000Le in bribes and are given back their picked over baskets of small products. Many times, the police scoop up products for themselves… and the bribes go directly into the police constable’s pockets.

The women tried taking up a small collection of Leones to pay the officers every day… to leave them alone. The collecting officer would then turn a blind eye… but another FCC police constable would skulk past and also demand money and threaten the women and children with arrest – which ultimately means a bigger bribe.

When I first learned about how the FCC Police harass street sellers, several years ago, I was incensed… It’s so frustrating and sad to think of the hardship that Hawa and the other women go through… scraping by to put a bit of food on their tables.

"...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. " - Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey


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