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Durban street vendors reorganise
By Gaby Bikombo, Chairperson of Siyagunda Association

The Eye Traders’, Siyagunda and Phoenix Plaza Traders’ Associations are demanding that the Durban Metropolitan Council consult with street trader organisations about the issues that affect their day-to-day efforts to earn an honest living and request negotiation and dialogue. 

This move is a response to an impasse with the City Business Support Unit (BSU) which the eThekwini Metropolitan Council tasked to manage and regulate street vending when it adopted the Informal Economy Policy in 2002. 

The BSU engineered a system of street vendors’ representation through “street committee”. All street committees of a particular area had to form an executive committee that affiliated to the Informal Trade Management Board (ITMB). The BSU recognised this structure as the only street vendors’ representatives with whom they would communicate and/or negotiate on behalf of street vendors of Durban. 

This “closed system” inhibited the existence of independent and democratic street vendors’ organisations. In addition, the street committees commonly known as “forums”, which were set up by the BSU, turned out to be open to corruption and nepotism, carrying out the municipality’s instructions instead of negotiating on behalf of street vendors.

As a result, many street vendors lost their livelihood, as their vending permits were taken away from them and given to new and unknown vendors. Furthermore, there were widespread practices of xenophobia that led to a situation where foreign vendors were milked, ie had to pay bribes to trade on the street.

There have been and continue to be allegations of corruption about the permit allocations resulting from this system. 
We have also seen that street vendors without a permit have been criminalised and face arrest, whereas they are just trying to earn an honest living like anybody else.

Street vendors’ dissatisfaction led to the launch, on 16th December 2005, of Siyagunda Association, followed by the Eye Street Traders Association, on 15th September 2006. Together with the Phoenix Plaza Street Traders’ Association (based about 35 km outside Durban and in existence since February 2002), they are in the process of forming an umbrella body that will be called SISONKE Street Traders Alliance. 

The aim of forming the umbrella body is primarily to have a strong democratic mandated alternative to ITMB structures who have clearly failed street vendors in Durban.

We organised a successful joint march to the city hall on 21st November 2006, where we presented the Council with a number of demands, including the challenge to eThekwini Metropolitan Council to commit itself to StreetNet’ World Class Cities for All Campaign, in order to ensure that street vendors are not going to be unilaterally evicted without alternatives in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

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