The struggle for the streets: processes of exclusion and inclusion of street traders in Durban, South Africa

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide make a living selling goods on the streets. This article traces the ebbs and flows of exclusion and inclusion of street traders from Durban's public spaces from the 1920s to the present. It shows that over time the city has, variously, expelled traders, allowed unmanaged trading and actively incorporated traders into urban plans. It suggests that there is an ongoing struggle for access to the streets, and draws attention to the role of the national and local state, as well as local political struggles. The history of street trading in Durban provides useful material for understanding marginality and informing policy.

1. INTRODUCTION

Despite advances in modern retailing, millions of people throughout the world still make their living partly or wholly through selling goods on the streets. This is particularly the case in Africa, where a disproportionate number of those in the informal sector are involved in retail (Meagher, 1995). A vibrant array of street traders is a familiar characteristic of African cities. Data analysis demonstrates that there is a close correlation between working informally in activities like street trading and being poor (Sethuraman, 1998; International Labour Organisation [ILO], 2002). These livelihoods depend on access to public space – a terrain over which there is frequently conflict and competition. Street traders are consequently often a controversial component of the informal sector. Kamunyori (2007:11), for example, points to the tension between the modernisation of African cites and what are often perceived as ‘non-modern’ activities like street trading. Analysing the processes of exclusion and inclusion of these activities may thus introduce new issues to the study of marginality.

International evidence suggests that urban authorities' approach to street traders is either ambivalent or repressive, but seldom supportive. Transberg Hansen and Vaa, for example, observe:

Violent confrontations between urban authorities and street vendors over the commercial use of public space are recurrent events in many African cities. Urban authorities frequently seek to remove street vendors, dismissing them as untidy, disruptive of established business, and allege that they are illegal immigrants if not criminals. (2004:13)

Further, Amis's study of the regulation of the informal sector in 10 developing country cities concludes that ‘it is often easier for city governments … to destroy the livelihoods of the poor than it is to create, sustain or enhance them’ (2004:145). As potentially a counterpoint to these international trends, Durban – South Africa's second largest city – is an important site of analysis.^{1 1} Its incorporation of the informal sector in general, and street traders in particular, into urban plans has in recent years been portrayed, in both academic (Skinner, 2000; Chen et al., 2004) and policy circles,^{2 2} as a better practice.

This paper provides a historiography of the changing attitudes towards the presence and activities of street traders in Durban. It draws on national data, news clippings, legal and policy documents, interview material and published research, collected over a number of years. It first reviews the empirical evidence of the nature of street trading in the city and then chronologically documents the Durban local authority's approach to the street traders from the 1920s to current times. Five periods are identified, as follows:

• Trader repression under apartheid, moving gradually to tolerance.

• Early to mid-1990s – deregulation and re-regulation.

• Mid-1990s to 1999 – an innovation: the Warwick Junction Project.

• Late 1990s – an attempt to institutionalise a progressive stance: Durban's Informal Economy Policy.

• From 2001 to 2007 – selective policy implementation and regression.

The bulk of the paper concentrates on the last three periods. The paper shows that over time the city has, variously, expelled traders, allowed unmanaged trading, and actively incorporated traders into urban plans. It argues that although Durban's stance has been relatively progressive, this is not a constant.

Much of the literature on marginality and exclusion focuses on economic processes, and this is also a key theme in the informal sector debates of the 1970s and 1980s (Moser, 1978; Castells & Portes, 1989). While not denying the importance of economic processes in generating and maintaining social exclusion, this study draws attention to the role of the national and local state, and local political struggles. It shows the livelihood activities of street traders to be critically shaped by a complex interplay of national and local government policy approaches, combined with pressure from both formal business and collective action among street traders. Studies often focus less on understanding the processes of inclusion than on analysing exclusion. The paper concludes with tentative suggestions as to what factors contribute to the inclusion of street traders in urban plans in a Durban context, where this did occur.

2. STREET TRADING IN SOUTH AFRICA AND DURBAN

Since Keith Hart first coined the term ‘informal sector’ in the early 1970s there has been much debate about what exactly this term refers to. Most definitions, however, agree that it refers to economic activities that are relatively small scale and elude certain government requirements, such as registration, tax and social security obligations. A defining feature for statisticians is non-re-registration for tax purposes. Most street traders would thus be considered to be part of the informal sector. (For a summary of recent developments in definitional debates, see Devey et al., 2006.)

There is little or no information on the numbers or demographics of street traders prior to the 1990s. This is because, as is explored in some detail in Section 2, street trading was largely banned. Since Statistics South Africa introduced the 6-monthly Labour Force Surveys in 2000, South Africa has had comparatively good labour market statistics. The ILO, however, points out that data on street trade should be treated with caution since this trade is inherently difficult to measure (ILO, 2002:51). Figure 1 shows the number of people employed in the informal sector, which Statistics South Africa defines as employment in unregistered small enterprises. During the period for which data are available, the informal sector constituted between 16 and 20 per cent of the South African labour force.

Figure 1: Employment in informal enterprises in South Africa, September 2001 to March 2007 Source: Statistics South Africa (2007a,b).

The graph makes it clear that the numbers of people working informally fluctuate, suggesting they are moving in and out of informal work. Casale et al. (2004:983) recalculated October Household Survey data to make it comparable with the Labour Force Surveys, and found that 1 161 300 people were working in the informal sector in 1997. This suggests that, despite fluctuations, the number of people working in informal enterprises has been on the increase in the post-apartheid period. On average, over the period for which data are available, one in every two of those recorded as working informally reported being involved in trade. Although it is not possible to determine exact numbers, a significant proportion of this group would be street traders.

Unfortunately, although 30 000 households are interviewed in the Labour Force Surveys, the data cannot be accurately disaggregated to city level. There are, however, a number of other studies that give some sense of the numbers of street traders and their demographics in Durban. In 1997 the Durban local authority commissioned a census and survey on street trading in the Durban Metropolitan Area. The census found 19 301 street traders operating in the Durban Area, over 10 000 of whom were operating in the inner city. The majority of traders, 59 per cent, were women, and nearly one in every two reported selling food (Data Research Africa, 1998:12^{3 3} ). The average profit reported in the survey was R102 a week, with 50 per cent of traders reporting a profit of less than R60 a week. This suggests a close correlation between being poor and working as a street trader, a relationship that is confirmed by a number of other studies, both internationally (Sethuraman, 1998) and in South Africa (Lund, 1998; Devey et al., 2006).

In 2003 the City Council commissioned a further street trader survey (KMT Cultural Enterprises, 2003). In this survey, 4705 traders were interviewed in a number of densely traded areas throughout the metropolitan area. Forty per cent of the interviewees were located in the inner city. Like the 1997 survey, this survey found that 59 per cent of traders were women. It found that the majority of traders (89 per cent) were African, and 60 per cent reported selling food. The final report does not include any turnover or profit figures. However, the findings on dependency ratios suggest that street trading is an important activity for household well-being in the city: 88 per cent of traders said they were the sole breadwinners in their families, over three-quarters reported that they had three or more dependants, and more than one-third reported seven or more dependants (KMT Cultural Enterprises 2003:12).

Although individual incomes are often low, research demonstrates that cumulatively these activities are worth a lot of money. Budlender et al. (2001) estimated that informal enterprises contributed between 8 and 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in South Africa. Again, these figures are not disaggregated by type of work, nor are there city-level statistics. There is sector-level and area-level evidence in Durban of the significant contribution of street trade in the city. Mander (1998), for example, calculated that in 1998 more than R170 million was spent on raw and prescribed products in the Russell Street traditional medicine informal market. Many street traders sell mielies (corn on the cob) in season: in 2001 Dobson estimated that R1 million's worth was sold in inner-city Durban every week (Dobson, 2001:8). This author also estimated that in the main public transport node bordering the Durban central business district, the Warwick Junction, informal trading generated an annual turnover of over R1 billion (Dobson, 2001:6).

Since the mid-1990s there has been an increasing number of foreigners, particularly from other African countries, working on the streets of many South African cities and small towns. In 2001 Hunter and Skinner (2003) conducted a survey of 170 foreign street traders operating on Durban's inner-city streets. Although their interviewees came from a large range of countries from across Africa, there was a predominance of traders from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal – 23 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively (Hunter & Skinner, 2003:306). In contrast to the South Africans, most of these traders were men. The survey found that foreigners either cut hair or repair shoes or sell clothes and clothing accessories. The clothing trade, in particular, is more lucrative than the food trade in which most of their South African counterparts are involved. In this survey there were many reports of police harassment but also more general experiences of xenophobia.

Existing survey data, although patchy, suggest that, although the numbers fluctuate, informal trade forms a significant component of South Africa's informal sector. There is a gender dimension to this work, with women being disproportionately involved, and often in the less lucrative types of trade. Finally, migration is an increasingly important element in street trade dynamics.

3. TRADER REPRESSION UNDER APARTHEID, MOVING GRADUALLY TO TOLERANCE

Durban street traders have been harassed for over a century. Beall and Preston-Whyte (1985), drawing on archival material, outline the way informal trade was circumscribed by Natal administrators in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Nesvag (2000), however, argues that until the 1930s street trade was not as harshly regulated as it would be in the period to come. Drawing on Maylam's work he notes:

Local native policy throughout this period, while repressive, was only partially effective, as it was often contradictory and full of loopholes due to deep divisions of interest between the various actors in white political and business circles in Durban. (Maylam, cited in Nesvag, 2000:35–6)

These loopholes were largely closed with the implementation of apartheid legislation. The two most significant pieces of legislation effecting the development and regulation of informal activity were the Group Areas Act (1950) and the Black (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act (No. 25 of 1945). The former disallowed black South Africans from accessing the more viable trading or manufacturing points, and the latter imposed restrictions on economic activities even in so-called ‘black areas’.

At a local level, the Durban City Street Trading bylaws (1962) outlawed street trading in the city. A scan of local newspapers of the 1960s and early 1970s indicates that traders were severely harassed. For example, in 1966 the Daily News reported that ‘485 people have been charged in less than six months with illegal street trading’ (17 October 1966), and in 1973 it described police as ‘fighting a battle’ against illegal hawkers and quoted Durban's Chief Licensing Officer as saying that ‘in terms of Government legislation no Africans are allowed to trade in white urban areas unless they are employees of a white person’ (Daily News, 28 May 1973).

In 1973 the Natal Ordinance (11/1973) was introduced, which allowed very limited trading regulated by what became known as the ‘move on’ laws. This provincial legislation restricted hawking of goods within 100 metres of a fixed formal business. It prevented hawkers from taking up fixed stands by allowing them to occupy a spot for only 15 minutes, after which they were to move at least 25 metres away. No sales point could be occupied more than once on the same day. The harassment of traders did not abate significantly. For example, in 1977 the Daily News reported that more than 70 fresh produce hawkers trading in Warwick Avenue were given less than 24 hours ‘to clear the area permanently’ or face ‘drastic police action’ (25 January 1977). The police justified their actions on the grounds of a perceived link between crime and trading, and their concern for consumers' health.

Reflecting on this period, Rogerson and Hart (1989:32) argue that South African urban authorities ‘fashioned and refined some of the most sophisticated sets of anti street trader measures anywhere in the developing world’. They point out that until the early 1980s hawkers in South Africa were subject to ‘a well-entrenched tradition of repression, persecution and prosecution’. In comparing cities, they observe that Durban fashioned a restrictive space larger than that of any other South African city.

There is evidence that street traders, even at this stage, were organised and defiant. The newspaper coverage includes many references to a Hawkers' Action Committee, led by a Mr P Tewari (for example, Daily News, 5 February 1981). Little detail, however, is given about who exactly this group represented. In May 1981 it was reported that:

Harassed fruit and vegetable hawkers in the Grey Street Complex have vowed ‘to declare war’ on the Durban City Police whom they say are determined to force them out of business. (Daily News, 7 May 1981)

It seemed that, despite numerous fines and cases of goods being confiscated, certain traders continued to operate, largely out of desperation for lack of other opportunities.

In the early 1980s, the Progressive Federal Party won the local government elections in the City of Durban. The new local council being now more liberal than under the National Party, the City Engineers commissioned the Market Survey (City of Durban, 1983) and the Hawker Report (City of Durban, 1984) to assess the approach to street trading. These reports reflected the status quo of street trading in the inner city and outlined management options (City of Durban, 1984). The Daily News, for example, stated that ‘following the production of the Hawker Report … the city council recognised the need to make allowance for the economic needs of at least some of the more than 100 000 people flocking to the peripheries of the city every year in the hope of finding work in a shrinking urban job market’ and added that the Hawker Report demonstrated that ‘hawkers were a fact of life throughout the city’ (18 June 1987). In 1985, in response to the Hawker Report, a subcommittee of councillors was formed to find practical ways of implementing more favourable policies for street traders. They decided to introduce a hawker's licence that allowed informal trading to take place, albeit spatially limited. This ushered in a new era of trader management that (as those working on the council at the time claimed) informed the way the city was to approach this issue in the 1990s (interview, Dean Botha, former head of the Department of Informal Trade and Small Business Opportunities, 13 November 2003). This new approach coincided with developments at a national level. From the mid-1980s, influx control laws became increasingly unenforceable and were abolished in 1986, and in 1987 the national government gazetted the National White Paper on Privatisation and Deregulation, which introduced a more tolerant approach to black small business.

This evidence suggests that processes of exclusion, followed by limited inclusion of street traders in the apartheid period and earlier, were partly determined by a complex interplay of national and local government policy imperatives. In his analysis of the first three decades of the twentieth century, Maylam (1982) hints at the role played by private sector interests.

4. EARLY TO MID-1990S – DEREGULATION AND RE-REGULATION OF TRADING

The national change of attitude to informal activities culminated in the 1991 Businesses Act. This legislation was a key measure for deregulating business activities, removing barriers to the operation of informal activities and making it an offence to enforce the move-on laws (Republic of South Africa, 1991). Once national legislation restricting street trading was relaxed in the early 1990s there was a dramatic increase in these activities in all South African cities and towns. In Durban, in 1991, the Department of Informal Trade and Small Business Opportunities was established to manage these new developments.

Local authorities, however, complained that they were unable to cope, which led in 1993 to the Amended Businesses Act (Republic of South Africa, 1993). This Act allows local authorities to formulate street trading by-laws outlining what they would and would not allow in their municipality, and to declare restricted and prohibited trade zones. In effect, the amendments in this Act have given local authorities much greater autonomy over how they manage street trading, and different local authorities have adopted very different approaches (Skinner, 2000).

The prohibited and restricted trade areas and street trading by-laws for Durban were gazetted in 1995. The by-laws ushered in a new regime of re-regulation that continues today. Although the Durban City Council did declare certain areas of the inner-city prohibited trade zones, most of it was declared a restricted trade zone and sites were demarcated. This is in contrast to, for example, Johannesburg City Council declaring the whole inner city a no-trading zone, with markets being built to accommodate less than one-tenth of the 10 000 traders who were previously operating. Although the Durban City Council's actions did reduce the number of traders, the majority were accommodated.

Durban's street trading by-laws are similar to those of other cities and towns. They contain clauses that regulate trading activities to minimise interference with the movement of pedestrians and vehicles. However, in line with national legislation, the by-laws state that traders who contravene any of these clauses, including trading in areas declared restricted or prohibited, will have their goods removed and impounded and be liable to pay a fine or be imprisoned. This means that although these are livelihood activities, criminal rather than administrative sanctions apply. The tools for harsh management of these activities thus remain.

In 1994 Durban's City Health Department introduced a health training programme for food traders. Although it was department specific, the introduction of the programme indicated a significant shift away from the view of traders as temporary sojourners in the city. The Department devised a set of minimum health standards appropriate for informal food traders and developed a code of good trading practice. These are disseminated through interactive training sessions that are offered at times and a venue designed to minimise the impact on trading activity. The training is conducted in Zulu and does not depend on participants being literate.

This period of deregulation and re-regulation coincided with, and was partly shaped by, the emergence of organisations of informal workers. In 1994 the Self-Employed Women's Union (SEWU), an organisation modelled on the Self-Employed Women's Association in India, was launched in Durban. Until the late 1990s the SEWU had strong and concentrated membership among street traders in the Durban inner city and on the beachfront. In 1995 the Informal Trade Management Board (ITMB) was established on the insistence of the Durban City Council that there be an umbrella body of trader organisations with which it could negotiate. Over time the ITMB became more independent, and by the late 1990s had support among street traders operating throughout the city. Both of these organisations lobbied and negotiated with the Durban local authorities for the infrastructure needs of their members. During this period, shelters were built for traders throughout the inner city. The activities of these organisations contributed to the pressure to incorporate traders into city plans. SEWU's sustained engagement, in particular, ensured that interventions were appropriate to women traders' needs (Devenish & Skinner, 2006).

5. MID-1990S TO 1999 – INNOVATIONS: THE WARWICK JUNCTION PROJECT

In 1995 and 1996 the foundations were laid for what has become widely recognised as a good example of integrating street traders into city plans – the Warwick Junction urban renewal project. The Warwick Junction precinct is on the edge of the inner city and the land is used for residence, transport and trade. It is one of the oldest racially mixed residential areas in Durban and was the site of important contestation against the Group Areas Act (Maharaj, 1999). It contains a confluence of rail, taxi and bus transport and is the primary transport node feeding the inner city. By the mid-1990s it was estimated that an average of 300 000 commuters travelled through the precinct every day. Given the high pedestrian numbers, this area has always been a natural market for street traders. With deregulation, traders flocked to the area – and by the mid-1990s it was estimated to house over 4000 of them. At the time, however, there were real concerns about urban management of the area. It was perceived to be a crime and grime hotspot.

The project was mandated to focus on, among other issues, safety, cleanliness, trading and employment opportunities and the efficiency of public transport. The area-based team initiated substantial capital works and established a number of operations teams to deal with issues as diverse as kerbside cleaning, ablution facilities, childcare facilities and people sleeping on the pavement. Between 1997, when the project was launched, and 2000, the project delivered in excess of R40 million in capital works. These included the upgrading of public transport facilities, and street lighting, landscaping and environmental improvements. Of particular relevance to street traders were the provision of street trading facilities, particularly shelters, the establishment of a dedicated market for the traditional medicine traders, and renovations to the fresh-produce market building – the Early Morning Market. Early on in the project an old warehouse located in the area was renovated to house the project office and serve as a community centre. This project has been lauded by many commentators (Grest, 2000; Saunders, 2004; Horn, 2004) and has won a number of awards.^{4 4}

The first large infrastructural intervention was the development of a traditional medicine market. For many years this area has been a hub of activity for traditional medicine or muthi trading. No provisions were made for the muthi traders. In the late 1980s and early 1990s muthi traders would frequently be seen sleeping on the streets at night under plastic sheets. Warwick Junction Project staff, in consultation with the existing traders, developed a facility for them in the Warwick Junction Area. They established a dedicated built market, with shelter, storage, water and toilet facilities, that accommodates 550 traders. These facilities have significantly improved their working environment. Writing for the Sunday Times, architect Silberman placed the traditional medicine market under the banner of ‘The Best of the Century’. She states:

This is one of the first South African structures which addresses – and celebrates – the informal traders who have come to dominate our city centres. (Sunday Times, 19 December 1999)

The traditional medicine market was one among a number of sector-specific interventions. By the mid-1990s there was vibrant trade in roasted mielies and the Zulu delicacy boiled ox heads, mostly sold by women. Since preparing these requires open fires, these are potentially hazardous trades but, rather than ban them, council officials worked with the cooks to design appropriate infrastructure. Another particularly precarious informal activity that is also dominated by women is collecting cardboard. In the late 1990s there were over 500 women collecting an estimated 30 tons of cardboard in the inner city every day, but being exploited by unscrupulous buyers. The project established an inner city buy-back centre in Warwick so the cardboard could be sold directly to the recycling company. This increased the collectors' (albeit still low) incomes by 300 per cent.

Much reference is made to the consultative nature of the project. The general secretary of the SEWU at the time of the bulk of the capital works projects in Warwick Junction notes that ‘the manner in which informal traders and other key stakeholders were engaged was qualitatively different from the type of consultation that is more often seen when project managers try to secure buy-in from stakeholders’ (Horn, 2004:211). She also states that ‘the Council afforded informal traders the opportunity to participate on a sustained and continuous basis in negotiations about their needs and priorities … in a low key way, often on an issue-by-issue basis’ (Horn 2004:211–2). Project staff worked with both trader organisations and individual traders. Informal traders were comparatively well organised, with both the SEWU and the ITMB active in the area.

In terms of ongoing management, consultative forums encouraged and supported high levels of volunteerism. A good example of this is the initiative Traders Against Crime, which was formed by traders in 1997 in conjunction with the South African Police Service and the Durban Metropolitan Police. Traders Against Crime members have been trained by the City Police and they patrol trading areas, alerting the authorities when action is needed. Since its inception the initiative has seen positive results, having substantially reduced both petty and more serious crime in the inner city. In the Warwick Junction area, for example, during the first 18 months of Traders Against Crime's operation, there was only one murder. This compares with the 50 murders in the previous year. The 300 committee members now operate in most densely traded areas of the city.

The former project manager of the Warwick Junction Project described how the project ‘worked with the dynamism’ it found on the streets (interview, Richard Dobson, 28 February 2007). Rather than attempting to change the extent and nature of these activities, the project, by means of thorough consultation, engaged with the infrastructural and activity-specific needs of street traders and responded accordingly. Keith Hart commented about the Warwick area that ‘Durban has provided an exhilarating proof of how poor people, in sensitive collaboration with urban planners, can enliven a city centre, generate employment for themselves and expand services for the population at large’ (interview, Keith Hart, Professor, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 29 May 2008).

While the Warwick Junction Project staff concentrated on this precinct, the Informal Trade Small Business Opportunities Branch were responsible for managing and developing street trading in all other parts of the city. Trader shelters were constructed along many of Durban's main inner-city streets. Attractive shelters and trader storage facilities were built at the beachfront, where there is a predominance of craft sellers. Space has been allocated to between 350 and 700 such traders (the number fluctuates seasonally). Further trader infrastructure was developed outside the inner city – in the former black townships of KwaMashu to the north and Umlazi to the south, and in the former Indian townships areas of Phoenix and Chatsworth. In the inner city the trader infrastructure doubtlessly improved traders' work environments. These interventions were often made in close collaboration with trader groupings. In outlying areas there is evidence that sometimes these developments were not as well conceived. For example, the Chatsworth Market lay empty for a number of years since there was no allocations policy. There was also much controversy over the Phoenix market, which was badly located (Attwood, 2000).

A 2000 study comparing Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria's policy and practice towards street traders concluded that Durban had made relative progress (Skinner, 2000). Not only had Durban established a department dedicated to street trader management and support, it had also allocated more resources to infrastructure development for traders than any other city. As has been pointed out, this was often done in a consultative manner with an appreciation of the economic dynamics of informal activities.

6. LATE 1990S – AN ATTEMPT TO INSTITUTIONALISE A PROGRESSIVE STANCE: DURBAN'S INFORMAL ECONOMY POLICY

In the late 1990s the city acknowledged that, although progress had been made with street trading, there was no overall policy guiding the city's interventions with respect to the informal economy. Interventions were thus ad hoc, with different departments responding in different ways. Further, it was acknowledged that little attention had been paid to informal workers other than street traders (Durban Unicity 2001:6). In November 1999 a technical task team was formed and mandated to formulate ‘an effective and inclusive’ informal economy policy. As outlined in Lund and Skinner's (2004) analysis, the process was evidence based, drawing on specially commissioned research, and entailed substantial consultation with stakeholders both inside and outside the council.

The policy's point of departure was that the informal economy is critical to economic development. It was repeatedly pointed out that it creates jobs and incomes for many of Durban's citizens, and particularly the poorer ones (Durban Unicity, 2001). These activities were thus placed on the mainstream agenda rather than being one component of a poverty alleviation project. A number of specific aspects of this policy are worth highlighting. It makes suggestions for improving the management of informal economy activities with respect to registration, site allocation, charges for operating and bylaws. It suggests that area-based management zones be established, since in the Warwick Junction case these had offered an opportunity to resolve coordination problems and encourage interest groups to participate in planning and management. It argues that decentralised management, combined with a programme that helps informal workers' representatives articulate their needs, was likely to create better work environments. It firmly acknowledges the role of worker (and not only employee) organisations in the informal economy. It lays out a capacity-building programme for organisations and local government officials. However, it also commits the city to providing support services to people who work for very small enterprises, thus addressing a gap in the national government's small business policy. It suggests the provision of basic business skills training, legal advice, health education and help with accessing financial services. It commits the city to a proactive role in achieving this – for example, it suggests that the city should subsidise training. Further, it suggests a sectoral or industry-by-industry approach to helping those working in the informal economy. This would entail comprehensive analyses of different sectors so the city can design and implement economically informed and targeted interventions.

The central substructures approved and adopted the policy in October 2000, and the new Thekwini Municipal Council adopted it in February 2001. StreetNet, an alliance of membership-based organisations directly organising street traders launched in Durban in 2002, says of the policy:

Durban's informal economy policy became feted by organisations such as the International Labour Organisation as an international best practice – because of its break with the traditional abolitionist policies of the past and its participatory development strategies to recognise, regularise and provide developmental support for all informal workers in the Durban Metro. (StreetNet Newsletter, September 2005, p. 5)

The policy drew from the lessons learned, particularly in the Warwick Junction Project, and was an attempt to institutionalise this learning. Its unanimous acceptance by the Council indicates a political commitment at the time to this shift in thinking. The policy was, however, accepted at a time of institutional change. The 2001 local government elections formalised new city boundaries and ushered in a final round of local government restructuring. The policy had been developed for the former North and South Central Local Councils, only two of the six substructures that were amalgamated to form the eThekwini Municipality in 2001.

7. FROM 2001 TO 2007 – SELECTIVE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION AND REGRESSION

In 2001, departments within the bureaucracy were merged and an entirely new organogram developed. There were high levels of insecurity among bureaucrats as people jockeyed for positions, and a number of bureaucrats left the council. Of the original 11 bureaucrats active in the informal economy policy development process, four left the Council within a year of the policy being adopted and two were quickly moved to work on other issues. In 2001 a working group was established to oversee policy implementation. This group held meetings until mid-2002, and then it was merged into the everyday workings of the line function department responsible for street trader management – Business Support.

Although the implementation of the informal economy policy as it was originally conceived has not been fully evaluated, there are indications that core components have not been implemented. Consider three aspects of the policy that are of particular relevance to street traders. First, it identifies an integrated information system as a critical element for moving ‘towards a better managed, more developmental, and co-ordinated approach, with incentives for registration and self-regulation’ (Durban Unicity 2001:21). Although some progress was initially made with designing such a system, it has still not been established. Second, the policy suggests that Durban's street trader by-laws be re-developed, stating that by-laws ‘should reflect the overall policy move away from sanction and control, towards support and the creation of new opportunities in a well-managed environment’ (Durban Unicity 2001:20). In 2002 the Legal Resources Centre, a human rights legal institute, produced a new set of draft by-laws in line with the suggestions contained in the policy. By the end of 2007, however, the 1996 street trader by-laws were still in place. Finally, for street trader representation, the policy suggests building the capacity of existing organisations by developing a support service that helps traders by advising them how to become more democratically constituted and offering practical help such as providing venues for meetings. The council has established committees with which to negotiate. Business Support staff have developed a standard constitution for street trader committees, which makes membership compulsory for permit holders. This is not only contrary to suggestions made in the Informal Economy Policy, but also violates the constitutional right to freedom of association.

The first signs that there was a significant shift in the city's approach appeared in mid-2004. On 14 June the Metro Police, without warning, removed traders' goods at various intersections throughout the central business district and the neighbouring middle-class suburbs. The papers reported the Metro Police spokesperson as saying ‘We have seized tons of their goods in our clean up operation’, adding ‘We won't let up until we have cleaned them all out’ (Daily News, 15 June 2004).

In November 2004 the Council approved the Public Realm Management Project, which was designed to stop ‘illegal, unlicensed street trading’. R3.7 million was assigned to the project over 6 months to be spent on employing and equipping 50 new Metro Police officers. These officers are armed but euphemistically named ‘peace officers’. The city council justified this move by pointing to the complaints from formal business. The head of Business Support Unit at the time of the launch, for example, said:

Illegal street traders are creating a terrible headache for shop owners and members of the public … it is important to make sure that we also address the needs of the city's rates base by ensuring that the concerns of formal business are also being looked at. (Daily News, 9 March 2005)

The Deputy Mayor, who also heads the economic development committee in the Council, confirmed this:

While it is important to promote small businesses, we also need to safeguard the city's rates base by addressing the concerns of formal business. (The Mercury, 7 February 2005)

At the time, the Council had issued a total of 872 permits, thus rendering ‘illegal’ the vast majority of street traders in the city. The ‘peace officers’ concentrated on removing traders throughout the central business districts of Durban and Pinetown as well as the beachfront. Although the number of licensed traders has increased since this first clamp-down, street traders have been continually harassed.

Having done research in Warwick Junction since 2004, May Chazen periodically visits the same traders. In June 2005 one of her informants described the situation on the streets as follows:

The police have been taking our stuff, putting it in a lorry, taking it and dumping it. It's a lot more now since Christmas. They have repainted the squares on the sidewalks and the police are enforcing it harshly. Now they come all the time, it used to be Monday, Friday and Saturday. (Chazen, notes from interviews conducted for a Master's thesis, Carleton University, Canada)

Statements to the press indicate that the reason behind the Council's shift in approach is pressure from formal business. However, Marriott (2005), who interviewed a number of formal businesses operating in the inner city, concludes that ‘while a minority of formal businesses reported occasional incidents of conflict between themselves and the traders, overall their relationship was described as cooperative’ (2005:13). Further, many street traders source their goods from formal businesses. This suggests further analysis is necessary. Activists point to a correlation between these developments and the announcement in May 2004 that South Africa was to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The coordinator of the international alliance of street traders, StreetNet, who has been monitoring the situation closely, argues that the sudden clearing of the streets is partly because cities are competing against each other for soccer events. She points out that there was an unprecedented level of urgency with the Public Realm Management Project. It was pushed through Council by the City Manager, bypassing all the usual committees (interview, Pat Horn, Coordinator, StreetNet, 13 September 2005). As Bromley points out in his global review of street trading and public policy, ‘aggressive policing is particularly notable just before major public and tourist events, on the assumption that orderly streets improve the image of the city to visitors’ (2000:12).

These recent developments have re-energised organising efforts among street traders. In December 2005, Siyagunda – an organisation of street barbers, who are predominately foreigners – was formed. Two further organisations representing largely traders without permits – the Eye and CBD1– have become active again. In late November 2006, Siyagunda, the Eye and the Phoenix Plaza Association marched on the city council and handed over a memorandum of demands to the Council's executive committee in an attempt to stop police harassment. StreetNet has increasingly become a significant lobbying force for an alternative approach in the city. It has launched, partly in response to South Africa's winning the Soccer World Cup bid, a ‘World Cities for All’ campaign. Further, the Legal Resources Centre – with the assistance of StreetNet – initiated three legal cases in an attempt to challenge these developments. One of these challenges the constitutionality of confiscating street traders' goods. The case is still waiting to be heard, but if successful will be precedent setting for the whole country.

It is these two routes of organisation and litigation that are likely to determine the extent to which traders are allowed to operate in Durban in the near to medium future. The evidence presented challenges the notion of Durban's approach to street trading being a best practice but rather suggests that there is an ongoing struggle for access to the streets.

8. CONCLUSION

The historiography of Durban's approach to street traders demonstrates that, for a period, the city accepted street trading as contributing to the local economy and thus a reality that does not have to be transformed into something it is not. As noted in the introduction, understanding processes of inclusion, where they occur, is a neglected aspect of studies of marginality. The next phase of this research will provide a much more detailed analysis of the driving forces behind the ebbs and flows of incorporation and exclusion of street traders, focusing particularly on establishing under what conditions local authorities respond to the needs and interests of those working in the informal economy. Existing empirical evidence suggests that in the Durban case there was a combination of the following factors: consultation between traders and council officials, institutional innovation in the form of area-based management, collective action among street traders, and a political moment combined with a well-resourced local authority. These five factors are briefly considered below.

Horn (2000:1) argues that the ‘first principle’ of appropriate regulation of street trading is the participation of street traders. Management decisions can then be implemented. This was a key component of the Warwick Junction Project.

As regards area-based management, in the larger cities those working in the informal sector can experience the local state as impenetrable. Decentralised or area-based management can provide an interface between those working in the informal sector and the local authority.

Collective action is demonstrated to be one of the few routes to secure gains for traders, since individually they are weak in the face of large bureaucracies and powerful private sector interests. SEWU's interventions, for example, have doubtlessly helped secure a gender-sensitive and more progressive approach to street traders in Durban. The founder and former general secretary, reflecting on the leadership role that Durban has come to play with respect to informal sector policy, argued that the SEWU could take some credit for this.

Although noting that there was a ‘political moment’, given that the African National Congress had been elected into power on the platform of improving the lives of the poor, the SEWU had provided the city councillors and bureaucrats with some pointers on how to do this. The secretary-general said the SEWU had shown the council ‘a way of dealing with the working poor … which was not a small business approach … but an approach based on ongoing negotiation’ (interview, Pat Horn, 27 February 2004).

To conclude, Durban is in the unusual position of being a comparatively well-resourced and capacitated city. By the mid-1990s, Metro Durban held assets of R3.5 billion and had the highest credit rating of any South African city (Freund, 2002:11). This meant that it had the resources to play a proactive role, including land. For example, much of the land in the Warwick Junction area belonged to the Council. Freund (2002) also points to the human resources policies in the council that ensure staff are reasonably well trained and remunerated. The city remains relatively well resourced compared with other South African cities in the new millennium and yet, as outlined in this paper, it has recently opted for a more conservative approach to street trader management. This seems to be partly because the city wants to convey a different image in the face of the upcoming Soccer World Cup. These recent developments suggest that processes of incorporation or exclusion of street traders are part of a dynamic and ongoing political struggle.

The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the International Labour Organisation for this research.

Notes

¹The local authority in Durban was officially renamed eThekwini Municipality in 2001. However, this paper refers to the city as ‘Durban’, since it covers the city's approach to street traders over a long period.

²See background papers for the 2002 general meeting of the ILO on the informal economy (downloadable from www.wiego.org).

³This is one of a number of reports referred to in this paper that fall into the category of grey literature. This was work commissioned by the Council that is not posted on their site. The author acquired these documents by direct request from a range of current and former Council officials.

⁴In 2000 it was awarded the World Wildlife Fund South Africa and Nedbank's Green Trust Award in the category ‘Urban Renewal’. The Project Centre won a KwaZulu-Natal Institute of Architects Heritage Award for the renovation of the Centre – a listed building.