The eThekwini municipality in Durban began public consultation meetings last month, which will continue to the end of November, to review hawking by-laws that it has drafted and will become law once the informal traders have had an opportunity to make inputs and comments.
Michael Mahlangu, the senior manager of the informal trade in business support, tourism and markets unit, said at the time that prioritising consultation was important because a majority of participants in the informal trading sector were there because they were poor and operated at a survivalist level. They needed to be assisted by local government and given recognition as important economic players.
Mzwandile Mvula, the general secretary of the African Co-operative for Hawkers and Informal Businesses, said yesterday that eThekwini had agreed to extend the consultation period to December 17.
The City of Cape Town’s planning directorate said it had proposed new and “progressive” policies for informal trading, which acknowledged the sector is “not a nuisance or phenomenon that should be cleaned up or eliminated”. – Wiseman Khuzwayo