Street vendors in Angola ask for urgent help and warn of risk of revolt

They are ubiquitous in Luanda, selling a little bit of everything, from fruit to bags of peanuts, water bottles, lunch boxes, cell phone chargers, car accessories, clothes, maps of Angola, and a variety of goods that they carry around all day, walking for miles in search of customers.

The “zunga” (street vendors) are mainly women trying to support their families on incomes sometimes as low as 500 kwanzas a day (US$1.2), according to José António Kassoma, president of the association, which represents 36,000 street vendors in seven Angolan provinces.

In Angola, nearly 80 percent of workers have informal employment, which rises to 88 percent among women.

In comparison, the unemployment rate is around 30 percent and rises to 57 percent among the youngest (15- to 24-year-olds), according to figures released in August by the Angolan National Statistics Institute.

Kassoma warned that the situation is critical and called on the government to find solutions. He lamented that requests for an audience with President João Lourenço had not been answered.

“We are a class with many people, we represent the largest part of the population and the weakest, and this poorest class is on the edge of the bearable because the policy does not include them,” he laments.

The official says that poverty and social exclusion have worsened among families dependent on the “zungueiras,” many of whom have nowhere to leave their children.

“The children are left alone and have nothing to eat all day. They eat at night if they bring a few kwanzas, and if the inspector doesn’t keep up the business, classes have just started, and we have 4,000 students who have stayed away from school because they can’t get a place in the public schools,” he denounced.

Excluded from social policies, the Zungueiras are ready to support demonstrations against the Angolan government “because they see no solution to their problems by those in power,” he warned.

“We are sending this urgent call for help because in Angola, there could be a war that is not fought with weapons but with social means,” Kassoma added.

“Many come to us with tears in their eyes; it is a total frustration,” said the head of the association.

Since 2016, he said, attempts have been made to dialogue with the executive to alleviate “this social drama,” but without concrete results.

According to the leader, proposals were made to develop family farming projects in the provinces – where many of those trying to survive in Luanda come from – but they were not supported or failed because “the ministry only wanted to discuss technical aspects.

“The young people who are ‘zungar’ could be involved in agriculture and produce food that can help reduce the prices of the basic food basket, but when it comes to implementing such programs, it does not work,” he pointed out.

He also did not spare criticism of the PREI program (Program for the Conversion of the Informal Economy, launched in November 2021), which “always benefits the same people, those who already have financial resources.”

José António Kassoma complained that municipal administrators poorly manage the programs, who “take the cousin, the nephew, the party member” when selecting beneficiaries, and the money “never reaches those most in need.”

“The poor little people, the ‘zungueiros,’ the mothers who run around the markets with 2,000 stores, receive no support. PREI gives money to entrepreneurs who already have capital,” he stresses.

As of Aug. 8, the date of the latest available data, PREI had formalized 246,189 entrepreneurs, some of whom received loans to strengthen their businesses.

Kassoma, however, says vendors essentially rely on themselves, collecting contributions that are then distributed to each participant in turn (a system known as “kixikila”), and regrets that “the ruling party refuses to sit down with the association.”

The street vendors plan to meet soon at Catinton Market (Luanda) to appeal to international solidarity “so that the world looks at Angola and sees this suffering.”

The aim is to hear the concerns of the class and to put pressure on the executive to speak out and to develop, together with the association, measures to solve the problems of poverty and social exclusion.