Deadline looms for City of Joburg to verify its informal traders

Following a recent court ruling ordering the City of Johannesburg to register its informal traders, Tuesday marks the final day for the city to verify street vendors.

Earlier in November, the Gauteng High Court gave the city until Tuesday to enroll informal traders in the CBD onto its systems.

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The ruling came after the Socio-EconomicRights Institute of South Africa (SERI) took the city to court, arguing that it had violated the traders’ right to earn a livelihood.

This was after the city decided to evict vendors operating outside designated areas and without valid trading permits.

The City of Johannesburg has been working to clean up the CBD, which included removing informal traders who were operating illegally.

More than 500 traders were affected, and the Gauteng High Court ordered the city to formalise them and provide trading stalls.

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero said the process has been underway, but not all traders have come forward to register for trading permits.

“We have now received just around 211 traders who were linked to the court judgement. We have now allocated them space, and we are just awaiting to finalise those who have refugee and asylum status. Once we have cleared those, we will also allocate them stalls.”

The city continues to deny that these actions were prompted by the presence of international visitors for the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit this week.

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