Johannesburg informal trader Agrippa Buthelezi, from Mahlabathini in KwaZulu-Natal, needs to raise money for his daughter to travel home after completing her exams at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town.
Over the past few weeks, Buthelezi has been struggling to make ends meet since he was prevented from selling his goods on Klein and Plein streets in the Johannesburg CBD.
The father of 11 said he has been selling his goods on the streets since 2006.
“I have never worked anywhere in my life but only sold on the street, and I was able to provide for my family. The past few weeks have been hard.”
Municipal officials have long been harassing them. He said they challenged the municipality through legal processes in 2013. “We won at the court, and we returned to the streets and continued trading.”
“In the past few weeks, they arrived again and evicted everyone from the streets. They started at De Villiers Street, telling us they don’t want us anymore.”
When he queried this with officials on the scene, telling them he and others paid a R100 monthly fee to trade, “they said we are using the wrong account to pay for our permits”.
“They say that all these years we have been using the wrong account to pay the municipality. They don’t know us.”
Buthelezi claimed the municipality was “playing politics” instead of helping people trying to survive.
He said officials should focus on ridding the city of drugs rather than targeting informal traders. He needed money for his children, as it was almost December, and soon it will be January, and the children will have to go back to school.
“How am I going to afford that without any income?” he asked.
“Why is it that they don’t allow us on the streets whereas they can’t even give us jobs? How are we going to survive? They are always hiring at the municipality, but they don’t give us jobs.”
Buthelezi was one of the street traders in the city who on Friday listened to a panel discussion hosted by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (Seri) and the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF) to raise public awareness of traders’ struggles and the law.
Rose Hlungwani, from Malamulele in Limpopo, said she had been a street trader since 2006.
She complained that she endured constant harassment from the Johannesburg metro police. She alleged the city officials often confiscate her stock, leaving her with nothing to sell.
“For the past 30 years, I have been selling on the streets. We have been paying the monthly R100 licence fee.
“We don’t know what is happening. We don’t ask for anything from anyone; we’re just trying to make a living, but the city doesn’t allow us to trade.”
The panel discussion focused on key issues such as the removal of traders and litigation; the implementation of the city’s informal trading policy; transparency in licensing processes; infrastructure challenges; and the restoration of a functional, neutrally facilitated traders’ forum to push for genuine participation and accountability in governance.
The Johannesburg high court recently directed the city to speedily verify and register street traders after informal traders approached the court with the help of Seri following evictions in the city centre.
Seri lawyer Deborah Raduba told traders during the discussion panel that the court found there should be mediation between traders and the city so they could find common ground.
The city said earlier this week it welcomed the court ruling.
“The court’s decision paves the way for structured and fair allocation of trading permits,” economic development MMC Nomoya Mnisi said. “This will help eliminate irregular practices and ensure that qualified informal traders operate within an equitable and well-managed framework.”
Public safety MMC Mgcini Tshwaku reaffirmed the city’s dual commitment to safety and economic empowerment.
“The city supports informal traders as essential contributors to Johannesburg’s economy, but this must be done responsibly and within the law. Areas such as De Villiers Street had become high-risk zones due to overcrowding, rising crime, litter and the presence of undocumented individuals. The ruling allows us to restore order while safeguarding livelihoods.”
He said officials would perform outreach programmes to ensure traders understand their rights and obligations, preventing unnecessary confiscation of goods.
A verification and registration process to legalise traders is under way at 66 Jorissen Place in Braamfontein.
The metro warned that only applicants meeting legal requirements will be registered and allocated trading spaces.
TimesLIVE
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