Criminalising the Livelihoods of the Poor: The impact of formalising informal trading on female and migrant traders in Durban

According to the author’s of this report, the policy of the eThekwini Municipality in South Africa on informal economy, encompassing informal trade developed between 1999 and 2001 was well received as progressive by many stakeholders. However, its implementation exposed many fault lines consistent of a political economic regime that tolerates rather than sees street trading as a sustainable economic venture that contributes to employment creation and economic survival of poor families. Instead of supporting and advancing street trading, the Municipality concentrated its resources in the punitive aspects of the by-laws through the Durban Metro Police rather than increasing the capacity of the Business Support Unit to improve the working conditions of street traders. We found that women and migrant traders are most affected by the formalisation processes. The result of the formalisation process therefore is what this report summarises as ‘criminalising the livelihoods of the poor’. Unfortunately, this attitude towards street traders seem to be uniform throughout the country with a lot of Metro Police spending more time harassing street traders and SAPS even breaking ranks with their constitutional mandate to involve themselves in unnecessary running battles with poor street traders trying to make an honest living.