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From best practice to Pariah:  the case of Durban, South Africa

                    By Pat Horn, StreetNet International Co-ordinator 

In 2001, the Metro Council of Durban adopted an impressive policy on the management of the Unicity’s informal economy. Durban’s Informal Economy Policy became feted by organisations such as the International Labour Organisation as an international best practice – because of its break with the traditional abolitionist policies of the past and its participatory developmental strategies to recognise, regularise, and provide developmental support for all informal workers in the Durban Metro. But in May 2005, fifty armed constables euphemistically named “peace officers”, were deployed to put a stop to “illegal, unlicensed street trading” – ie all trading by vendors to whom the Council had not issued street trading permits. By then the Council had issued a total of 872 permits. Already in 1998, a survey done for the Durban Metro had shown that there were 19 000 street vendors in the whole Metro, approximately 7 000 working in the centre of Durban. The crackdown would therefore have the effect of putting over 18 000 vendors out of work. Most street vendors (the majority of whom are women supporting large families) do this work for lack of employment in the formal economy – it is one of the few non-criminal means available to them to eke out a livelihood, albeit only a basic subsistence.  So – what happened ?

Durban’s City Manager had proposed the adoption of the first stage of a Public Realm Management Plan (PRMP) to the Council in November 2004, in direct contradiction with Durban’s Informal Economy Policy – authorising Council officials to bypass the Policy’s carefully-crafted framework for sustainable methods of regulation and support of ALL the street vendors and informal traders who operate in the Durban Metro. The Council claimed “we want to break the cycle of survivalism, where people find themselves trapped in a secondary economy” – while evicting survivalist street vendors and denying them their livelihood. But no alternative means of livelihood were offered to the 6 000 street vendors in the city centre and the other 12 000 in the rest of the Durban Metro to whom permits had not been issued. 

The Durban Metro’s excuse for ditching the Informal Economy Policy is that they are preparing to create a “world-class city” in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010. However, international experience has shown that “quick-fix” street vendor evictions as envisaged by the PRMP can rarely be sustained for more than a few months – at best a couple of years – before the vendors are back, often in ever greater numbers. But even during these short times, the loss of incomes to the families and communities of street vendors has disastrous economic and social consequences. 

Fighting back 

StreetNet does not have any affiliated organisation in Durban since the enforced liquidation of the Self-Employed Women’s Union (SEWU) in 2004. But the international office of StreetNet is located in Durban – and already in March 2005 we saw signs of the Council’s intended crackdown in contravention of the provisions of Durban’s Informal Economy Policy. For the whole of March, StreetNet attempted in vain to engage Council officials in dialogue on the issues. We eventually had to institute an official complaint against a senior Council official who, instead of engaging in dialogue, attempted to intimidate StreetNet in a most unprofessional telephone call – but to date StreetNet has received no report from the Council about the outcome of this complaint, nor any apology or reassurance that there will be no repeat of such incidents. 

A city-wide federation of street vendors’ organisations lost credibility as its leaders compromised themselves and supported the artificial division created by the Council between those vendors to whom they had issued permits versus those without permits.  As a result, street vendors have poured into StreetNet’s offices for assistance. We further discovered that the Durban Council was unlawfully discriminating against refugees in their permit-allocation policy – unlike smaller neighbouring Councils who appeared to better understand the law. 

StreetNet has therefore embarked upon a litigation offensive against the Durban Metro, accompanied by extensive media coverage. StreetNet assisted some of the evicted vendors to appeal to the Durban High Court for urgent relief through the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) a public interest law firm with a proud history of winning litigated precedents in the long fight against Apartheid and ongoing struggles for economic justice for the poor. StreetNet is also supporting a legal challenge through the LRC, by an informal traders’ association from the outlying Phoenix area of Durban, against the arbitrary declaration by Council officials of all street trading in Phoenix as illegal.  Further litigation – in defence of Durban’s Informal economy Policy, and regarding the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Street Trade Bylaws – is planned. 

Interim results 

The Durban Metro panicked upon receiving the urgent High Court summons, and engaged TWO Senior Counsel to defend them. Fortunately, this resulted in inexperienced Council officials getting some long-overdue legal advice. Clearly they were soon advised of the illegality of their discrimination against refugees – because without any notice, the discriminatory practices were quietly but suddenly discontinued. This saved StreetNet the trouble of instituting the discrimination case we had been preparing. 

Being aware that this would be a test case, the two judges who found this matter before them on different days, were reluctant to make an urgent ruling. The first deferred the matter to a different date, and the second heard the arguments – but reserved judgment. A large number of street vendors attended the hearing to offer their support to the two evicted vendors, but were surprised to hear lengthy arguments about the impoundment of cattle and legal rights to tow away vehicles causing obstruction !! This is largely due to a lack of case law on street vendors.

The University of Natal’s School of Development Studies commissioned a quick study among formal businesses in Durban’s Central Business District (CBD) – the constituency which the Durban Metro is seeking to impress by means of the PRMP. Interestingly, the research showed that businesses had mixed feelings about the crackdown – and they were particularly concerned about the lack of alternatives available to evicted street vendors, and the lack of proper consultation with them prior to their eviction. 

Conclusions from Report on Perspectives of Formal Businesses in the Durban CBD