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Abantu Tobacco & Li
Image courtesy of Masixole Feni/GroundUp
By Thabo Thlobelo,
Bukelwa Qebeyi stirs a cauldron full of her popular beer
S
ection 22 of our Constitution enshrines freedom of trade, occupation and profession. This set of rights is unique among human rights instruments. The Section states, “Every citizen has the right to choose their trade, occupation or profession freely. The practice of a trade, occupation or profession may be regulated by law.” These set of rights are extended to all citizens, including shebeen owners or people trading in liquor using shebeen permits – which is a fair number of liquor traders in townships, at least throughout Gauteng. The Constitution does not only guarantee this right but it affords, thorough the courts, a positive duty upon the state to safeguard this right. Recently, retired constitutional court judge Justice Dikgang Moseneke awarded both common law and constitutional damages in favour of the families of victims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy. This award was groundbreaking in protecting human rights and demonstrating the extent of protection of human rights.
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Township liquor traders have a unique but very painful past, which continues to be disregarded and violated by our democratically elected government. Early on in our sad history of discrimination and separate development laws, Africans (blacks) were prohibited to consume liquor, let alone sell it. This resulted in the mushrooming of what was then referred to as “shebeens”, an Irish term loosely translated as an illegal liquor outlet. To date, shebeens are still treated as illegal liquor outlets, and the rights of shebeen owners are non-existent. Shebeen owners, who are predominantly black women, are raided and targeted on a daily basis mainly by members of the South African Police. What is worse is that municipalities, especially Johannesburg Metropolitan Council, is hell-bent on closing down what they perceive as illegal shebeens, the same way the apartheid government had undertaken similar operations in the past. The question is, where does this conduct leave the question of human rights violation?
