April 15, 2004
By Ndaba Dlamini
THE City of Johannesburg is committed to the development of informal traders and finding a solution to problems they are faced with in council-owned trading facilities.
Johannesburg Executive Mayor Amos Masondo gave this assurance to traders during a tour of inner city markets.
Mayor Amos Masondo assuring traders that the City is committed to their development
In order to build capacity among informal traders, the City aims to offer training to informal traders in Metropolitan Trading Company facilities by the end of June 2005, Masondo said. The City also aims to link up with universities and technikons in providing managerial training skills to traders and "meaningful progress will be seen in a few months".
Mayor Masondo chats with a trader
Director of the City's Economic Development Unit, Lael Bethlehem, said the roll-out of the Informal Trading Development Programme (ITDP), which was approved in 2002, highlighted some of the major concerns of the City in relation to informal traders.
"The City envisages that trading should take place in markets, stalls and other demarcated spaces only. The ITDP plans to provide traders with appropriate facilities, limit the number of traders to the carrying capacity of an area and prevent unregulated trade," she said. "The City plans to cancel existing pavement leases in overcrowded places like the Greater Joubert Park (an area between Park Station, Rissik Street, and Shell House, De Villiers Street, by the end of June 2004."
Masondo appealed for improved communication between informal traders and the council and said the better organised people are, the easier it is to communicate and come up with solutions to issues which are negatively affecting relations between informal traders and the council.
Masondo was referring to the strained relationship between informal trader organisations and the council in recent years, when the Metropolitan Trading Company, a municipal-owned entity responsible for the establishment and management of retail markets for formal and informal traders, locked out traders for failing to pay rent.
"At the moment, the council is in the process of finding solutions to current problems facing the City and traders operating in council-owned inner city facilities. Even though by-law enforcement should be strengthened, we feel that the City should not be punitive in dealing with illegal trading, but should foster cooperation. Because informal traders play an important role in Joburg's economy, we want to make sure that people trade, but trade in specially designated places," the mayor added.
Council-owned facilities include the Metro Mall, a trading hub in Bree Street close to Park Station, where some 450 informal traders operate side-by-side with formal retailers; the atmospheric Faraday Mall off Eloff Street Extension in Selby, home to over 280 muti traders and traditional healers; and various specifically designated stalls scattered throughout the CBD.
During a tour of the facilities the mayor and his team, which included Bethlehem, inner city councillor Sol Cowan, Brian Hlongwa, mayoral committee member for municipal services, and the CEO of the Metropolitan Trading Company Keith Atkins, spoke to traders and representatives from the informal trading organisations.
Several problems were highlighted during the mayoral tour: high rent, illegal traders taking away business, a lack of storage space, and no electricity or running water.
A representative from the African Council of Hawkers and Informal Business (Achib) said: "For the past 15 years, the council has been making promises without carrying them out. The council should give traders best location and best service that they deserve."
One hawker operating a kitchen at the Metro Mall said she could not afford the rent because of a lack of customers. "My target customers are taxi drivers who operate from the mall but they prefer to buy food from food vendors operating outside because they are cheaper than us. The council should deal with these people operating illegally because they take business away from us," she said.
Most traders lamented the "high rentals". At the Metro Mall open stalls with roof covering range from R75 to R210 a month, semi-closed stalls with steel gates from R350 to R650 a month, and shop/kitchen stalls range from R400 to R800 a month depending on services and facilities available.
Most of the open stalls at the Metro Mall offer fruit, vegetables and small domestic items while the semi-closed stalls offer fruit, vegetables, clothes, barber shops and shoe repair services. Mini shop stalls are used as barber shops, kitchens, clothing stores and hair salons.
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