Empowering informal traders in the City of Johannesburg to reach their full economic potential could soon be realised.
This according to the MMC for Economic Development, Sharon Peetz who answered the question directed at her from the Economic Freedom Fighters in a recent council sitting.
Despite there being no direct budget allocated for training programmes aimed at informal traders, the draft 2017/18 budget has awarded R9 million towards informal trade.
“This will be used towards a number of interventions such as piloting management of trading spaces in the inner city with matched private sector funding,” she said.
The current offering of Small, Medium and Macro Sized Enterprise (SMME) hubs does not consist of enough outreach programmes aimed at targeted groups such as informal traders, Peetz said.
Read: Are informal traders needed?
The SMME system is in the process of being reshaped in the next financial year, with more interventions aimed at empowering informal traders to be developed.
The department, Peetz said, will also better their relationships across all spheres of government where informal traders are specifically targeted.
“More importantly we plan to resuscitate programmes tailored towards empowering traders through partnerships with higher educational institutions to focus programmes tailored to skills education for traders.”
Currently, the City’s emergency management service, environmental health service, Metro police and Citizen Relationship and Urban Management Department conduct bylaw education with traders. Economic development skills training could soon be added.
Also read: No to informal trading
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