Informal Trading Citichat 23 September 1999

CITICHAT No 31/99 - 23 September 1999


Informal Trading

Driving up Marshall Street to work one morning this week I encountered hordes of informal traders pushing grossly overladen trolleys, courtesy of the supermarkets and other major retailers, the trolleys that is, down Marshall and north up into Rissik.Street. I really mean hordes for there are some 600 who pour out of the old Irish Barracks building each morning en route to their trading 'pitches'. It is an awesome sight which reminded me of the films we constantly see on TV of long columns of refugees fleeing war torn countries. Only here, they come back each evening!

The background to all this relates to the City at last reclaiming Oppenheimer Park. If you hadn't seen Oppenheimer Park over the past few years you won't understand what I mean by reclaiming it. Back to beginnings. The Johannesburg Saga by John R Shorten quaintly records the following in regard to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer; "He is commemorated in Johannesburg by the attractive fountain set in the centre of the Square on the eastern side of the Rissik Street Post Office. This memorial which adds a note of charm to the central area, was donated to the city by his son, H. F. Oppenheimer and unveiled by the Mayor, Councillor Alec Gorshel, on the 16th July, 1960."

In the late 1980s the then City Council decided that with massive political changes on the horizon it would be politic to stop enforcing the draconian informal trading bylaws that essentially banned street trading in the city. From fewer than 200 licenced traders in 1976 approximately 7000 licences had been issued by July 1988, but there were many more traders on the street by that stage than licences issued reflected.

The 1991 Businesses Act set out provisions for deregulating both formal and informal business. Importantly, it also removed the requirement that street trading be controlled through licences thus effectively liberating the streets. Street trading exploded and the huge gaps that resulted from apartheid planning were exacerbated. There was nowhere for street traders to store their goods nor for washing nor toilet facilities.

A local entrepreneur recognised the need and saw Oppenheimer Park as providing the answer. He started letting the Park to street traders and the "attractive fountain" and "charm" of the Park referred to by John Shorten disappeared instantaneously under hundreds of informal trader trolleys stacked like they were never designed to be. The fountain was now used for washing clothing et al and the walls of the adjoining historic Rissik Street Post Office as an open air urinal. The entrepreneur became wealthy, who wouldn't letting out someone else's property?

Lest you are concerned about the "leaping springboks" sculpture that adorned the fountain, rest well. It is no longer being used as an anchor for wash lines The Oppenheimers reclaimed it for incorporation into the Anglo precinct development in Main Street!

The Park was identified as a priority item on the 1999 agenda of the Inner City Committee. But it now became impossible to dislodge the entrepreneur! Reclaiming the Park would mean that he would lose his livelihood (renting public open space!) After much searching an alternative site was found for him, the Irish Barracks, and he was introduced to the owners being the State Public Works Department. An agreement was reached and 600 informal traders departed the Park and moved into their new storage facility from which they sally forth daily creating a new problem as we do not yet have trafficc lanes dedicated to informal trader carts overladen or not. The Inner City Office is now looking at how Anderson and Marshall Streets can be 'remodelled' to cope with this new and unique traffic.

Never a dull moment! And they say the city is dying! Have a good long weekend, cheers.