Licenses and Permit Moratorium for Informal Workers

Sithulisile Moyo Licenses and permits that expired between March 2020 and June 2021 will remain valid until 31 December 2022. Disaster Management Act, 2000; Directives Regarding Business Licenses and Trade Permits; Government Notice 615 of 2021 published in Government Gazette no. 44853 on the 15th of July 2021. COVID-19 crisis exposed the disparities and vulnerabilities experienced … Read more

Law Seminar with informal workers: Closing the gap between law and justice

Sithulisile Moyo The ILO reported that around 2 billion people in the world work in the informal economy. That is more than 61% of the world’s economically active population. In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the informal employment ratio is well above 80%. In developed countries it is only around 18%. The informal economy  secures … Read more

Impact of the pandemic on informal workers in Durban: Stories from the street

Misiwe Maphumulo & Sarah Heneck A WIEGO-led COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy survey was conducted in 12 cities worldwide, with the aim of assessing the impact of the pandemic on informal workers.  Asiye eTafuleni (AeT) surveyed 185 informal workers across three sectors in Durban, namely, waste pickers, market traders and street traders. The COVID-19 pandemic … Read more

Part 2 – Inclusive urban design and policy that dignifies the Os’gadla

(This blog forms part of a series, see Part 1: Os’gadla; an unrecognised, yet extremely robust workforce in transit) ‘By 2030, eThekwini Municipality will be Africa’s most caring and liveable city.’ This is the IDP vision for eThekwini – the municipality in which Durban is situated. In order to make this ambitious goal a reality, … Read more

Reoccupation of Public Spaces

Sarah Heneck & Joanne Lees The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and the Department of Economic Development established a number of sector-based task teams in order to develop post-lockdown economic recovery strategies for KZN. One of the task teams focused specifically on the informal economy. Patrick Ndlovu, one of AeTs co-founders, was … Read more

Impacts of Coronavirus: Evolving challenges faced by informal workers

Sarah Heneck This is a follow on piece, tracking the impacts of coronavirus on the informal economy. Read the previous blog here. After almost 6 weeks of no income for the majority of informal workers in Warwick Junction, the move to lockdown level 4 offered a slight relief for those who are now able to … Read more

Impacts of Coronavirus: An uncertain future for informal workers

Sarah Heneck The coronavirus (COVID-19) has made its way swiftly to all corners of the world and into all communities, but this pandemic disproportionately affects the most vulnerable members of society, in both health and economic terms (the latter will be the focus of this blog-post). Durban’s inner-city informal workers are some of most vulnerable … Read more

Public Space [Health] Safety: A response to COVID-19

Toni Ottanelli-Gale As the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic reached South Africa, the nation mobilised swiftly and implemented necessary measures to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 cases. Despite broad awareness of COVID-19, an understanding of the way the virus spreads and mechanisms to prevent transmission of this highly contagious virus, were limited This is particularly … Read more