Informal traders in the City of Joburg are expected to march to Braam Park on Thursday to protest against what they describe as harassment and ill-treatment of legal informal traders operating within the Inner City Improvement District by the Johannesburg metro police and the municipality.
The traders are demanding the re-marking of trading stands and the issuing of permits, calling on Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero and city manager Floyd Brink to take immediate action.
The planned protest comes five months after the city initiated a crackdown on informal trading, particularly in high-density areas like De Villiers Street. Authorities removed hundreds of traders to promote “order” and “cleanliness”, citing safety risks and bylaw violations.
The general-secretary of the Johannesburg Informal Traders Development Powerhouse, Mmeshi Marokane, told Sowetan that the agreed policy steps had been skipped by the city, and they were only regulating now.
“We sat with the city and made some agreements around the new policy and the smart cards, and how they were going to be implemented. There was supposed to be verification, after which the smart cards would be issued, and only then would regulations follow. However, they are skipping the measures we agreed upon and going straight to regulation. How can you regulate something that does not exist in the framework,” he asked.
Marokane said the city was pushing the narrative that it was enforcing the bylaw policy when in fact what it was doing was displacing traders.
“They are going after traders who are trading in legally demarcated areas because you have people who have been selling in some of these places for 30 years, and one morning the city decided to remove them, telling the trader that they need to close.
“And the law is very clear: when you want to move someone, you need to offer them an alternative place to trade. The mayor is displacing people,” he said.
It boiled down to harassment and fear-mongering by the JMPD and the city, Marokane added.
City spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said they had noted with concern the planned march by the informal traders operating in the inner city. He said they had assessed the claims made by the traders and maintain that the consistent enforcement of bylaws throughout the inner city has been both necessary and appropriate to restore order, cleanliness, safety, and long-term economic stability.
“In recent months, these efforts have led to measurable improvements, despite attempts by certain external parties to sow confusion and division among traders for their own interests,” he said.
According to Modingoane, the city has not received a verified list of traders allegedly affected by the enforcement operations, making it difficult to establish the scale of non-compliance.
“Most of the traders referenced in the complaint have already been verified and incorporated into the city’s permit system. Several others have been contacted multiple times to collect their permits but have not responded.
“The department of economic development is in the final stages of confirming the rollout schedule for the smart card permit system. The city will continue to enforce bylaws decisively, particularly where traders operate outside designated trading areas,” he said.
Sowetan
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