Johannesburg - Urgent applications by two groups of informal traders will be heard in the High Court in Johannesburg at 2pm on Tuesday.
The SA Informal Traders' Forum and SA National Traders' Retail Association (Santra) are seeking to interdict the City of Johannesburg and its metro police from removing informal traders from the streets.
Santra's application was earlier stood down until 11.30am.
Just after 11.30am, Judge Ramarumo Monama said he would hear both the applications after lunch.
The two groups want to stop the city from demolishing further stalls and want traders to be allowed to resume their work in their previously allocated areas.
According to Michal Johnson, for Santra, the city, in its answering affidavit, called for the matter to be placed on the ordinary court roll.
“(But) it is extremely urgent,” she said outside court.
“People are living day to day without food to eat.”
If the city was successful the matter might only be heard next year, she said.
Santra filed a replying affidavit to reassert the urgency of the matter.
Monama is expected to consider the urgency of the applications and whether they should be consolidated, which the city has argued for.
He is also expected to consider an application from an intervening party in the matter.
The applications were launched after the city started registering all traders on the streets.
This was because of discrepancies between the allocated stalls on the city's database and the number of stalls counted on the streets.
The city found that several traders were being allocated smaller areas, creating overcrowding.
In addition some stands were being traded and leased illegally.
In front of the court's main entrance, informal traders and their supporters sang and danced while they awaited the court's decision. - Sapa