Informal Trading Plan for Kuils River approved
31 January 2020
The City of Cape Town has approved a trading plan for informal businesses in the Kuils River Central Business District (CBD) that will see a total of 179 trading bays undergoing a facelift.
The report on this project, which was tabled at the City’s first council meeting for 2020 on 29 January, stated that the informal trading plan for the area is to provide dedicated trading opportunities and security of tenure for informal traders.
The City is striving to create an enabling, supportive and well managed environment for informal traders to operate and develop their businesses in a manner that ensures consistency, self-sustainability and a positive relationship with the formal business sector and community.
‘The City has always acknowledged the relevance and contribution of informal trading to the social and economic life of the city. Informal trading provides an income to those who are unemployed as well as affording residents an alternative to established retail options,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management, Alderman Grant Twigg.
The project will be spread across various streets in Kuils River and it will encompass 157 existing trader bays. The City will add 22 new bays. The trading bays will range between 2m x 2m to 4m x 4m in size.
All informal trading sites will be managed according to the terms of the City’s Informal Trading Permit System and enforcement will be done by the City’s Law Enforcement.
‘We are also exploring the possibility of appointing a market operator to assist with the operational arrangements of the trading spaces, particularly over weekends,’ said Alderman Twigg.
Some of the conditions which the City has stipulated are that the traders will need to operate with a valid informal trading permit to be renewed monthly, they will need to comply with the City’s by-laws which will ensure that there is no over-trading, no littering and that there will be removal of waste from the sites.
According to the City’s Informal Trading Policy, the criteria for the allocation of trading bays will, amongst others, be based on the following considerations;
• Applicants should be existing informal traders or be willing to become informal traders on provision that they comply with the requirements and may be, for example, informal employees, seeking to establish their own businesses
• Preference will be given to the unemployed and the Historically Disadvantaged Individuals
• The type of the goods and services should not conflict with/or unduly compete with the type of goods sold by formal businesses in close proximity to their trading areas, or the type of goods sold and services provided informally, in the same trading area
‘The City of Cape Town remains committed to being an enabler of the informal economy. We recognise its immense contribution to the local economy,’ added Alderman Twigg.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
