Across South Africa, more than 40% of the country’s 1.9 million self-employed informal workers are women, yet they remain invisible in the eyes of the law. If you are pregnant and selling food in a township market, or running a small business to keep your household afloat, you are excluded from maternity benefits that formal employees can claim through the Unemployment Insurance Fund. This legal blind spot forces mothers in the informal economy to choose between unpaid leave, returning to work days after childbirth, or facing devastating losses to their health, income and their children’s wellbeing. SAFM speaks to Dr Janine Hicks, senior lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Law, and project leader on the South African Law Reform Commission’s Advisory Committee for Project 143: Maternity and Paternity Benefits for Self-Employed Workers.
The MSG Advocacy Coalition is a growing collective of NGOs and researchers with members including Embrace, Children’s Institute, the Equality Collective, DG Murray Trust (DGMT), Grow Great, Ilifa Labantwana, SAMRC/Centre for Health Economics & Decision Science – PRICELESS SA, HEALA, Amandla.mobi and the Health Systems Research Unit at SAMRC.
