In Johannesburg, the responsibility for street trading falls under the Local Economic Development unit in the Urban Development Department. Some aspects regarding the management of street traders have been outsourced to different agencies, namely the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), the Metro Trading Company (MTC), and the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP) (Mitullah, 2003:10). The CJP was established in 1991 to promote urban renewal. It manages six City Improvement Districts (CIDs) in the Johannesburg CBD. The CJP interacts daily with traders, ensuring health and cleanliness standards, and supports efforts to keep the inner city crime free. In addition, the CJP regulates the number of traders and the areas in which they may trade (Motala, 2002:23).
The City of Johannesburg indicated its stance on street trader by-laws and policies in a press release in 2002, where the City maintained that a number of policies for informal traders were and are developed in order to maintain control in this specific environment, and secondly, to ensure that this „managed urban environment‟ is functional. The City further stated the purpose of street trading by-laws was to ensure that street traders‟ needs are met without compromising the needs of other stakeholders within this environment, namely pedestrians, service providers and property owners (City of Johannesburg, 2002:1). They further stated that they accept that street trading has become a key component of people‟s income-generating activities, and therefore the city‟s economic development strategy, called Joburg 2030, recognises that fact. The by-laws give further effect to the Informal Trading Policy of the City of Johannesburg, which is aimed at creating opportunities for those involved in informal trading to share in the benefits of the city‟s economic growth (City of Johannesburg, 2009a:2). This policy is an indication that the City recognises the existence of street traders. The intentions within this strategy are to make street trading a viable economic activity (City of Johannesburg, 2002: 1). The City‟s vision with reference to informal trading is: „To create a well-managed informal trading sector which talks to the needs of its stakeholders and is effectively integrated into the economic, spatial and social development goals of the City.‟
The City of Johannesburg‟s mission (2009a:4) with regard to the informal trading sector is as follows:
In order to create opportunities for the informal trading sector to share in the benefits of economic growth, the City will, through a developmental approach, enable access to job and entrepreneurial opportunities within the informal trading sector, facilitate the migration of informal traders into the formal sector.
by providing a stable and predictable regulatory and management environment, a positive relationship with the formal sector will be nurtured so that the
sectors operate effectively alongside each other in an environment that fosters sustainable growth.
In an Informal Trading By-Law Feedback Workshop run on 9 September 2009, it was announced that street trading would be called Informal Trading in terms of the Informal Trading Policy. This term would include the following forms of trading:
a) Street trading which encompasses the selling of goods or supply of services for reward in a public road;
b) Selling of goods in a linear market;
c) Mobile trading, from caravans and light motor vehicles;
d) Selling of goods in stalls or kiosks; and e) Selling of goods at special events.
(City of Johannesburg, 2009a)
The City of Johannesburg also recognises that there are challenges in the informal trading sector, which include lack of infrastructure such as shelter, water, sanitation, and storage; law enforcement difficulties; health and safety obligations; and consumer behaviour. The City believes that the Informal Trading Policy is an attempt to assist street traders in alleviating some of the challenges that hamper their development (City of Johannesburg, 2009b:6).
The policy, according to Kenny Hlela (2003) from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), is based on two key elements. First, the City of Johannesburg intends to
restructure the appearance of the inner city. The City also aims eventually to remove traders from the streets, and to place these individuals into council-provided markets, which will have proper infrastructure and services such as water, electricity, and proper sanitation (Hlela, 2003:1). At present, when one walks around the city centre, one is often confronted with bad smells, which may be the result of littering and the dumping of waste products into drains and storm-water pipes within the city by street traders, ultimately making this environment unpleasant and unhealthy. The aim, therefore, behind these structures should be to bring an end to the negative consequences of street trading in the inner city environment (Hlela, 2003:1).
The policy endeavours to develop informal trading into a more commercially viable activity for the individuals who earn a living from street trading. According to the City of Johannesburg, this policy intends on developing street trading and informal traders into a mercantile class who operate in a semi-formal retail environment. Another endeavour of the city council is political in nature, which is to free informal traders from unscrupulous networks that undermine their interests. There are cases where street traders are vulnerable to protection rackets which often compel street traders to use expensive transport, storage facilities and bulk supply networks (Hlela, 2003: 1). The City Council‟s ultimate desire is to make certain that Johannesburg becomes a world-class city by 2030.
This vision, according to the council, is seen to be obstructed by street traders. He further mentions that the Johannesburg 2030 Document assumes that informal trading is a temporary problem, which can be solved by changing the „trading environment‟ (Hlela, 2003: 1). Judging by the sheer volumes of street traders within the CBD, this will not be an easy task.
The Johannesburg City Council is already running four markets under the management of the Metro Trading Council (MTC). These markets include the Yeoville, Hillbrow Penni, Metro Mall and Jeppe markets. The MTC, however, requires three criteria to be fulfilled in order to gain a site within these markets. The first criterion is for prospective traders to have in their possession a South African Identification Document or a temporary residence permit. Secondly, the trader needs to have spent time in the street surrounding the designated market. The street trader also needs to pay for the space provided by the MTC, which is a profit-making company. These criteria are all translated
into a point system, where the trader with the highest points will be allocated the site (Hlela, 2003:2). Hlela (2003:2) fears that these criteria may have the unintended consequence of creating informal power relationships, for example between the trader and the individual who allocates these points. This situation was the very thing the City Council was trying to eliminate, while those who cannot afford the site will literally be left on the streets once again. However, with the advent of a new permit law (which is outlined on pg 35), such informal power relations should be eliminated.