The scope and scale of the informal food economy of South African urban residential townships: Results of a small-area micro-enterprise census

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographics in eight urban township field investigation sites across South Africa.

Research site	Black African (n)	Coloured (n)	Total population (n)	Total households (n)	% of population female	% of population formal housed	% of population informal housed
KwaMashu	73 623	168	74 037	16 683	51.6	77.1	22.9
Ivory Park	44 979	102	45 453	19 146	45.5	86.8	13.2
Tembisa	40 920	78	41 673	10 467	49	95.7	4.3
Browns Farm^a	40 893	578	41 895	14 355	50	20	80
Delft South	22 311	20 046	43 185	11 322	51	100	0
Imizamo Yethu	14 235	576	15 537	6 015	45	39	60
Sweet Home Farm	7 491	231	7 836	3 210	46	0	100
Vrygrond	11 910	11 916	25 197	6 627	47	79	21
Total	256 362	33 695	294 813	87 825	48	62	38

^aBrowns Farm total population data are estimated, comparing the actual survey area against the sub-place area; Browns Farm race data are estimated from the demographic profile of the sub-place area; and Browns Farm gender data are from sub-place area.

Source: 2011 census (Statistics South Africa, 2013).

Table 2. Household annual income data: number of households (2011 nominal values).

Research site	No income	R1–4 800	R4 801–9 600	R9 601–19 600	R19 601–38 200	R38 201–76 400	R76 401–153 800	R153 801–307 600	R307 601+	Total
KwaMashu	3 144	885	1 275	2 964	3 231	2 571	1 602	693	347	16 712
% KwaMashu	18.8	5.3	7.6	17.7	19.3	15.4	9.6	4.1	2.1
Ivory Park	4 323	792	1 236	2 772	5 004	3 432	1 200	294	114	19 167
% Ivory Park	22.5	4.1	6.4	14.5	26.1	17.9	6.3	1.5	0.6
Tembisa	2 040	348	459	1 263	2 289	2 331	1 221	390	126	10 467
% Tembisa	19.5	3.3	4.4	12.1	21.9	22.3	11.7	3.7	1.2
Browns Farm	4 650	1 626	2 049	4 089	6 660	3 591	1 239	402	201	24 507
% Browns Farm	19	7	8	17	27	15	5	2	1
Delft South	1 908	573	915	1 704	2 877	2 025	930	285	105	11 322
% Delft South	17	5	8	15	25	18	8	3	1
Imizamo Yethu	1 464	195	321	1 014	1 743	924	276	39	36	6 012
% Imizamo Yethu	24	3	5	17	29	15	5	1	1
Sweet Home Farm	831	294	312	621	810	279	54	9	6	3 216
% Sweet Home Farm	26	9	10	19	25	9	2	0	0
Vrygrond	1 443	276	351	1 005	1 569	1 188	561	171	72	6 636
% Vrygrond	22	4	5	15	24	18	8	3	1
Total	19 803	4 989	6 918	15 432	24 183	16 341	7 083	2 283	1 007	98 039
% of all	20.2	5	7	15.7	24.7	16.7	7	2.3	1	100

Source: 2011 census (Statistics South Africa, 2013).

Table 3. Micro-enterprises located by category in small-area census research of eight urban residential townships.

Research site	Agriculture	Appliance repair	Art and craft	Building services	Business services	Car wash	Community service	Drug dealer	Educare	Entertainment services	Greengrocer	Hair care	Health services	Home maintenance	House shop	Miscellaneous liquor sales	Meat, poultry fish retail	Mechanical services	Micro-manufacture	Personal services
KwaMashu	57	18	0	6	49	11	2	11	26	13	3	39	32	52	156	9	3	49	55	4
Ivory Park	8	46	5	53	43	17	3	6	37	18	143	141	39	0	429	76	21	67	59	0
Tembisa	23	18	1	16	57	27	2	3	42	11	98	97	25	0	449	9	11	53	21	6
Browns Farm	10	22	1	39	28	22	6	8	42	9	72	133	49	0	229	2	56	34	32	0
Delft South	7	6	0	22	17	6	8	8	32	30	21	63	5	0	131	0	17	52	22	0
Imizamo Yethu	0	7	4	9	7	5	0	2	10	7	0	44	23	0	47	25	4	10	5	12
Sweet Home Farm	5	4	0	6	0	1	0	5	6	7	13	12	12	0	37	0	9	3	4	2
Vrygrond	10	14	0	14	16	3	3	17	25	10	13	29	15	0	49	1	14	39	9	1
Total	120	135	11	165	217	92	24	60	220	105	363	558	200	52	1 527	122	135	307	207	25
Research site	Phones	Recycling	Religious services	Restaurants	Shoe repair	Grocery retail (spaza)	Specialist store	Shebeen	Street trade	Tailor	Tavern	Takeaways	Transport services	Tuck shop	Wholesaler	Wood and coal	Total
KwaMashu	21	194	42	1	6	127	4	252	122	9	21	101	38	21	0	2	1 556
Ivory Park	49	122	24	2	32	181	33	256	313	31	21	144	13	62	0	14	2 508
Tembisa	39	83	27	10	21	153	12	141	118	27	29	77	14	0	0	0	1 720
Browns Farm	35	68	65	3	15	185	10	285	51	21	7	125	45	0	0	0	1 709
Delft South	10	16	38	5	4	181	7	102	17	11	18	36	3	0	2	4	901
Imizamo Yethu	4	5	13	6	2	77	10	154	30	8	1	55	8	1	0	0	595
Sweet Home Farm	4	18	11	2	3	56	1	111	36	1	0	19	12	0	0	1	401
Vrygrond	4	10	35	1	1	140	11	130	11	6	1	18	3	0	0	6	659
Total	166	516	255	30	84	1 100	88	1 431	698	114	98	575	136	84	2	27	10 049

Table 4. Food-related micro-enterprises within the township research sites.

	Primary production			Fresh produce retailing				Grocery retailing					Informal foodservice				Totals
Research site	Agriculture	Total agriculture	% of food related	Greengrocer	Meat, poultry and fish retail	Total grocery retailing	% of food related	Spaza	Tuck shop^a	House shop	Total grocery retailing	% of food related	Restaurants	Takeaways	Total informal foodservice	% of food related	Total all	% of all micro-enterprises
Kwa Mashu	57	57	12	3	3	6	1	127	21	157	305	65	1	101	102	22	470	30
Ivory Park	8	8	<1	143	21	164	17	181	62	429	672	68	2	144	146	15	990	39
Tembisa	23	23	3	98	11	109	13	153	49	431	633	74	10	77	87	10	852	50
Browns Farm	10	10	1	72	56	128	19	185	0	229	414	61	3	125	128	19	680	40
Delft South	7	7	2	21	17	38	10	181	0	131	312	78	5	36	41	10	398	44
Imizamo Yethu	0	0	0	0	4	4	2	77	1	47	125	66	6	55	61	32	190	32
Sweet Home Farm	5	5	4	13	9	22	16	56	0	37	93	66	2	19	21	15	141	35
Vrygrond	10	10	4	13	14	27	11	140	0	49	189	77	1	18	19	8	245	37
All sites		120	3			498	13				2 743	69			605	15	3 966	39

^aThe concept of ‘tuck shop’ was only developed after Cape Town data collection was completed. In Cape Town sites, these enterprises were originally included in the ‘house shop’ category.

Table 5. Number of food-related enterprises per 1000 people in the research sites.

Research site	Primary production	Fresh produce retailing		Grocery retailing			Informal foodservice
	Agriculture	Greengrocer	Meat, poultry and fish retail	House shop	Tuck shop	Spaza	Restaurants	Takeaways	Total
KwaMashu/1000	0.77	0.04	0.04	2.11	0.28	1.72	0.01	1.36	6.33
Ivory Park/1000	0.18	3.15	0.46	9.44	1.36	3.98	0.04	3.17	21.78
Tembisa/1000	0.55	2.35	0.26	10.77	0.00	3.67	0.24	1.85	19.70
Browns Farm/1000	0.24	1.72	1.34	5.47	0.00	4.42	0.07	2.98	16.23
Delft South/1000	0.16	0.49	0.39	3.03	0.00	4.19	0.12	0.83	9.26
Imizamo Yethu/1000	0.00	0.00	0.26	3.03	0.06	4.96	0.39	3.54	12.23
Sweet Home Farm/1000	0.64	1.66	1.15	4.72	0.00	7.15	0.26	2.42	17.99
Vrygrond/1000	0.40	0.52	0.56	1.94	0.00	5.56	0.04	0.71	9.72

Table 6. Extrapolated food-related micro-enterprise numbers across South African urban townships.

Informal food micro-enterprise type	Prevalence in sample sites (%)	Outlets (urban national)
Primary production (urban)	3	7 800
Fresh produce retailers	13	33 800
Grocery retail	69	179 400
Informal foodservice	15	39 000
Total	100	260 000

Figure 1. R1 (US$0.08) food items available from informal food retailing outlets in Delft South (2015). Source: Image composed and taken by Justin Patrick (www.justinpatrick.co.za).

Statistics South Africa, 2013. Quarterly Labour Force Survey. Quarter 2, 2013 (QLFS, 2).

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