Informal traders still want the municipality to do more for them
A few informal traders who spoke to the Courier collectively said that the municipality has never provided them with any permits.
Dundee’s sidewalks are full of traders selling everything from fruit and vegetables to sweets, shoes, clothes and even braai meat.
With the unemployment crisis continuing to grow, many have no alternative but to use their entrepreneurial skills by selling goods on sidewalks, pavements and passageways just to make ends meet.
Locals and foreign nationals jostle to make ends meet – sometimes blocking pedestrian walkways and impacting on formal businesses by trading outside their shop doors.
According to Endumeni Municipality’s informal trading bylaws, the purpose is to regulate trading for the benefit of the public residing and carrying on business within the municipal boundaries of Endumeni Municipality.
A few informal traders who spoke to the Courier collectively said that the municipality has never provided them with any permits.
“I have applied for a trading permit multiple times, but I have never been granted one.
“It’s funny that the municipality always requests that we apply, but we have never been granted permits from our prior applications,” explained Nonhlanhla Mthethwa, an informal trader in the CBD.
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