Street traders, regulation and development in the eThekwini Unicity : an assessment of the new informal economy policy.
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Date
2003
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Abstract
This research paper looks at the issues that arise when implementing the
regulatory regime governing street trading in the city of Durban. It does
three things. First, it provides a comprehensive overview of the context of
the street trading policy environment, in an attempt to set out the various
discourses surrounding street trading regulation in the eThekwini municipal
area from colonial times till the present.
Second, the paper looks at the institutional profile of street trading and
related issues within the operations of the city bureaucracy as part of the
argument that its structural location determines, the attention and support
that the sector gets. Consideration of related institutional variables such as
location, budgeting, management strategy, and human resources revealed
that the paradigm shift proposed by informal economy policy has occurred
to some extent. However there are views that the organizational logic and
culture of the municipality undermines speedy problem-solving
mechanisms.
Third, the paper explores issues that have to do with the impact of the
changing regulation and institutional environment on the operations and
livelihoods of street traders. Regulation is operationalised as registration,
spatial allocation, enforcement and system capacity. The related experience
of the regulatory regime suggests that implementation remains a problem in
transforming a progressive policy intention.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.
Keywords
Informal sector (Economics)--Durban Metropolitan area., Informal sector (Economics)--Government policy--Durban Metropolitan area., Trade regulation--South Africa., Theses--Public policy.