Following the repealing of apartheid legislation, by the early 90s, South African cities sought ways of accommodating growing numbers of street traders, an expression of the desperation of people to eke out a living after having failed to secure work in the formal economy (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
Municipalities were forced to formulate street trading policies that accommodated street traders while simultaneously eradicated crime, litter and vehicular and pedestrian congestion (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000). In the early 90s, to develop a representative, relevant street trading policy, the Licensing Division of the then Pietermaritzburg Transitional Local Council (PMB-TLC) began liaising with formal and informal traders.
Owing to a lack of a legislative framework to guide this process, consultations became increasingly difficult to manage, and subsequently the PMB-TLC authorised the Licensing Officer in terms of Section 6A (2) of the Business Act to regulate street trading (PMB-TLC, 1996, cited by Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
An Informal Trading Task Team formed in 1998 and consisted of Mr. Pops Chetty (Chairman); Mr. Rob Haswell (Msunduzi Municipality‟s Strategic Executive Manager);
Economic Empowerment); the Traffic and Security Unit; and the Licensing Unit. The Informal Trading Task Team formulated the Informal Street Trading Policy for Pietermaritzburg-Msunduzi that currently regulates street trading in Pietermaritzburg.
The Informal Street Trading Policy devised by the Pietermaritzburg-Msunduzi Transitional Local Council is not a clear, coherent policy document but rather contained in a collection of the following documents:
Business Act 71 of 1991;
A copy of the council‟s street trading bylaws of 23 May 1996;
Application for and conditions imposed for ice cream vending;
Code of practice for mobile soft diary mix ice cream vendors;
Road traffic bylaws;
Application form for temporary use of council-owned land;
Form sent to the Medical Officer of Health, City Engineers (waste management), Chief Fire Officer, and Licensing Inspector to approve or reject the trader‟s application for a site based on the location and goods to be sold;
End elevation of trading table for the Mall area (a construction blue-print of fixed stall infrastructure); and
Report by Acting City Administrator for Executive Indaba: Report back on implementation of the Informal Trade Policy.
Much of the information relevant to implementation of the Informal Trade Policy such as designated areas, issues pertaining to infrastructure and aspects of monitoring and evaluation were left out of the actual policy documents. To access the substance of Informal Street Trading Policy, the minutes of the Informal Trading Task Team (obtainable from Archives at Pietermaritzburg City Hall) needed to be consulted (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
The Pietermaritzburg Informal Street Trading Policy was to be implemented in three phases:
Phase one was implemented in the CBD between January and June 1999 through the Informal Street Trading Policy. The policy was first implemented in the Church Street Mall as this area was the heart of the city centre, a shopping destination for locals and tourists (the Church Street Mall is quite unique as it is the only area, apart from Debbi Place, that has infrastructure for street traders).
Only 79 traders could be accommodated in the Church Street Mall, of these eight were food vendors restricted to selling cooked sausages and hot-dogs (Mayrhofer
& Hendriks, 2000). To comply with regulations of the City Health Department, food vendor sites had to have cooler boxes and buckets with clean water. Traders reported carrying water from home, washing their hands at a nearby fountain and transporting water from public toilets to their trading sites (Mayrhofer &
Hendriks, 2000).
Phase two involved the identification of new sites undertaken in March 2004 in the outer CBD and certain industrial locations. A further 300 new trading sites were identified in terms of street trading bylaws (YEDP and NDC, 2005).
Phase three has not yet been undertaken. This phase will identify sites in suburban or residential areas. These areas could include Raisethorpe, Northdale, Manchester/Failsworth Road, Copesville, Mountain Rise, Woodlands, Eastwood, Willowton, Sobantu, Scottsville, Hayfields, Mkondeni, Pelham, Edendale, Imbali, Railway Street, Mayors Walk, Clarendon and Chase Valley (YEDP and NDC, 2005).
Only the first two phases of the Informal Street Trading Policy have been implemented.
The first phase of implementation in the Pietermaritzburg Mall and inner CBD has been documented and lesson reported by Mayrhofer and Hendriks (2000). The following discussion focuses on the first phase of policy implementation in the Church Street Mall, Pietermaritzburg.
In 1997 there were 3500 informal traders operating in the Pietermaritzburg-Msunduzi Transitional Local Council Area (PMB-TLC cited by Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000). To
implementation, that street trading would be allowed throughout the PMB/Msunduzi- TLC, with certain restrictions, and traders had to apply for a permit to trade. Application forms were available at the TLC offices. All traders operating in the city were given an opportunity to apply for a permit to trade in the Church Street Mall. However, traders already operating in the area were given preference in the allocation of licenses (PMB- TLC, 1999, cited by Hendriks & Mayrhofer, 2000). Only South African citizens were considered for trading permits. Traders who sold fruit/vegetables and food had to first apply for a food license, and then for a trading permit or lease agreement for a site (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
Only sites in the Church Street Mall have fixed stall infrastructure. Stall infrastructure consists of a table, shelter and a seat that allows for temporary storage or display, but designed in a way to prevent traders from sleeping overnight at the stalls (Mayrhofer &
Hendriks, 2000). Since stalls have no overnight storage facilities, 91 per cent of street traders interviewed by Mayrhofer and Hendriks (2000) reported that they stored goods overnight at local businesses for a fee, while six traders took goods home at the end of business each day. Bins were provided at trading sites and emptied daily by the TLC (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
Traders interviewed by Mayrhofer and Hendriks (2000) reported that the stall‟s roof was a source of dissatisfaction. About 83 per cent of traders interviewed by Mayrhofer and Hendriks (2000) reported goods getting wet when it rained, compelling them to pack up and leave. Another 68 per cent added their own tables to the structure for increased display space, and 92 per cent of traders reported the open design of the structure led to theft and consequent loss of income (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000). These are important considerations for the Msunduzi Municipality when considering further infrastructure plans for street traders in the city.
Sites demarcated within the CBD had no infrastructure and were unserviced (Baijoo, 2007). White lines demarcate trading sites. Traders outside of the mall and within the
CBD had no fixed stall infrastructures and had to purchase their own tables, umbrellas and chairs to operate from demarcated sites.
The first phase of implementation of the Informal Street Trading Policy appeared to have been an integrated effort. The Waste Management Division, Traffic and Security Unit and City Health Department were key role-players in policy formulation and implementation. Waste removal, street cleaning and public toilets were managed by the Waste Management Division. Food vendors were required to attend training on aspects of food hygiene, health requirements relating to food preparation and waste management (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000). The TLC provided guidelines on positioning of traders according to items sold, for example, traders selling jewellery were not placed in front of jewellery shops (PMB-TLC, 1999 cited by Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
The Traffic and Security Unit were (and still are) the enforcing unit, evicting illegal traders from legal trading sites and non-trading sites. In June 1999, all traders trading without a permit in the Church Street Mall were evicted by the TLC (Aldridge, 1999a;
Anon, 1999a and Layman, 1999 all cited by Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000). Illegal and evicted traders were outraged and protested, and unlicensed traders threatened and intimidated licensed traders (Aldridge et al., 1999; Annon, 1999b; Coetzee, 1999; all cited by Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000).
Traders in the Church Street Mall did not perceive the implementation of the Informal Street Trading Policy successful in terms of creating an enabling environment for their businesses to grow (Mayrhofer & Hendriks, 2000). Traders in Mayrhofer and Hendriks‟
(2000) study reported that the trading environment in the Church Street Mall was not enabling for the following reasons:
Traders did not earn enough to pay rent and sublet to relatives;
Legal South African permit holders rented the sites to non-south Africans for up to R400 per site per month;
Foreigners used South African traders to acquire permits and then employed the
Additional expenditure incurred /loss of income as a result of paying for overnight storage of goods, closing early in rainy weather, theft of goods owing to open design of street furniture; and
Inadequate access to water and sanitation facilities.
The problems reported by street traders in the Church Street Mall are similar to problems reported by street traders in Durban who operate with make-shift tables and shelters (Lund, 1998; Skinner; 1999, Lund et al., 2000). It appears that the infrastructure in the Church Street Mall area has not created an enabling environment and in fact not contributed to securing the livelihoods of street traders. Changes in structural design and provision of services are prerequisites in creating a nurturing supportive socio-economic environment for street traders. These reported problems are issues that the Msunduzi Municipality has yet to tackle and should inform future infrastructural and policy objectives. The following section discusses designated trading areas of the Informal Street Trading Policy within the CBD and in a suburban area in Pietermaritzburg.
4.4. DESIGNATED TRADING AREAS IN PIETERMARITZBURG/MSUNDUZI