Informal Trade - informal trading bylaws - South Gauteng High Court - inner city Johannesburg - South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF)
In this matter, SERI represents informal traders in an urgent application brought before the Johannesburg High Court. The matter was initiated by a group of informal traders together with the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF). The respondents in the case include the City of Johannesburg, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), the Executive Mayor, Dada Morero, and the City Manager, Kiba Kekana.
Between 2 October 2025 and 8 October 2025, the MMCs for the City, the Executive Mayor, officers of the JMPD, Johannesburg Property Company ("JPC"), members of the South African Police Service ("SAPS"), wardens from the Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens ("CPW"), members of the South African National Taxi Council ("SANTACO") forcibly evicted informal traders and confiscated their stock and/or goods from their trading sites at Noord Street, King George Street, Klein Street, Wanderers Plein, De Villiers Street and Rissik Street.
These enforcement actions were carried out without lawful authority (which would be in the form of a court order), prior notice, and in violation of the Businesses Act, the City’s informal trading by-laws, and the traders’ constitutional rights. These actions deprived the traders of their livelihoods, undermined their dignity, and caused significant hardship for traders and families who depend on street trading as their main source of income. The affected informal traders are lawful traders, many of whom possess valid trading permits or are awaiting formal allocation of stalls through the City’s administrative processes. Since the City's operations commenced in early October, the affected informal traders have not been able to return to work.
Through the urgent application, the traders sought immediate judicial intervention to protect their right to trade, for the court to issue an interdict preventing the City of Johannesburg and the JMPD from continuing with evictions, confiscations, or any form of interference with their trading activities and, in addition, an order compelling the City to return all confiscated goods and to recognise the applicants and other listed traders as lawful informal traders until the matter can be fully heard and resolved.
On Monday, 3 November 2025, the Johannesburg high court granted an interim order directing the City of Johannesburg to, amongst other things, urgently and speedily engage with the applicants (informal traders) and undertake a process of registration, verification, and allocation of trading spaces to traders in the inner city as contemplated by the informal trading bylaws between the 4th and 18th of November 2025. The court also ordered the parties to refer the dispute to mediation, and that the applicants may file a review application within 20 days of the finalisation of the mediation process to address aspects of the dispute on which the parties could not reach a mediated agreement.
The case raises important constitutional and administrative justice issues concerning the rights of informal traders in urban areas and the obligations of municipalities when enforcing trading regulations. It questions whether the City’s enforcement practices are consistent with the principles of fair administrative action, human dignity, and the right to choose one’s trade or occupation as protected under the Constitution. The matter also highlights the broader tensions between urban management policies and the economic survival strategies of low-income residents who rely on informal trading for their livelihoods.