Formally Meeting the Informal Sector

As in many African cities, Durban’s informal sector is growing fast.  Some estimates suggest that about 16% of the labour force derives its income from informal means rather than the formal economy, which actually may be lower than the African average (over 50%) suggested by the graph below.  However, a municipality plan for “Durban’s Informal Economy Policy” states that the economy is not divided into these binary categories of formal or informal, but is instead a spectrum with “a more formal end and a more informal end.”  Instead, the municipality quantifies street traders, rather than everyone participating in the informal sector, in the Durban Municipality Area at about 20,000.  60% of those traders, the report adds, are women.  Many members of the sector “provide services for low pay (such as domestic work) followed by trading, catering and accommodation” (Durban’s Informal Economy Policy, 2001).

http://www.cityfarmer.org/Figure_4.jpg

In Durban, the use of space for the informal sector has historically been defined by a lack of guaranteed permanence in the space occupied in a given moment.  Street traders, by far the most visible members of the sector (or part of the spectrum), set up stalls on certain streets or in large markets but always face the risk that the city will decide they don’t belong there.  Even the historic Early Morning Market, which has now existed on the same spot for over a century, faced years of debate in court as the traders fought municipality plans to build a state-of-the-art mall in the market’s place, a move which would have displaced thousands of traders.  Traders in other parts of the city report being moved from their normal locations as the city government decided the informal stalls did not present a desirable image of a city set on progress.  On occasion, these removals have resulted in resistance and protest resulting in arrest. 

Check out these two photos from the Early Morning Market!

 http://www.urbanadventures.com/data/153/tour_343/zauf__early_morning_market_durban.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ZL3Kngb81qo/Smgyiz9MsoI/AAAAAAAAUd0/h9R_6Uq7ljA/EarlyMorningMarket6.jpg

The World Cup provided a particularly interesting moment in street trader – authority relations.  The municipality actually encouraged street vendors realizing that they would serve as a tourist attraction for the millions of visitors.  Some street vendors were even taught new languages like French to increase the number of visitors with whom they could communicate.  At the same time, however, vendors were prohibited from the most lucrative spots – the stadiums themselves.  In these sites, only formal sponsor companies could set up shop.   

While street traders may be the most visible informal sector workers, they “are far outnumbered by the many home based and outside workers” (Durban’s Informal Economy Policy, 2001).  Many workers based out of their homes face a threat of removal too, however.  Durban’s numerous informal settlements face regular eviction threats, further adding to the tension between informal sector workers and the police and authorities.

Durban’s Informal Economy Policy promised, in 2001, to develop more programs to support the informal sector by offering more formal structures for them to use.  Identifying three sites for pilot programs, the policy planned to provide street traders and other informal sector members who work outside of their homes with more legitimate means to claim work space.  For a small fee, these workers could avoid fear of harassment from police and forced removal.  Given that the aforementioned clashes between police and traders or residents of informal settlements have occurred in very recent years, well after 2001, one must question the impact of that policy.  The following maps highlight some of the policies plans.

 Under the 2001 policy, the sites labeled in red in the above image were places where workers in the informal sector could go to pay fees for the right to set up stalls on certain locations.  We can see from this image that one of these sites is conveniently located at the Early Morning Market itself, while the other (the Martin West Building) is also in the same downtown area, not far from Victoria Street Market.

The policy proposed three pilot programs, to take place at the three pinpointed sites in the map above.  The Alice Street program is right in the downtown area, while the other two are in suburbs of the city.  This map highlights the space in between the pinpoints - the numerous neighbourhoods that would not benefit from the policy's plans until after initial experimentation with the pilot spots.    

http://www.kwazulu-natal.co.za/12.Fact-File-Durban.htm

http://www.durban.gov.za/Resource_Centre/Policies/Documents/INFORMAL%20ECONOMIC%20POLICY%20FINAL%20DOCUMENT.pdf

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-04-giving-the-sidelined-a-voice

http://mg.co.za/article/2010-03-03-durban-street-vendors-tackle-new-languages-for-world-cup

Finally!  The moment we've all been waiting for!
Here is the final piece of the puzzle - the last section of a larger old Nairobi map that I've been working to rectify on a WorldMap base:

At first I was at a total loss of how to match this last clip to WorldMap, as there was almost nothing on the old map in the way of identifiable features in this section.  I ended up matching it to the other sections by using the numerical markings on the edges (which were not coordinates but functioned in a similar way, so they might have been numbers specific to the original map's grid). 

And here is the total image - ten pieces of an old map of Nairobi on the WorldMap base:

I just wish all the sections lined up more smoothly together!  That said, I do feel confident that, taken individually, each section has been warped with accurate control points such that at least parts of it are spot on!

While I plan to leave the warped maps in a semi-transparent state so that one can see both the bottom and upper layer, here's another version of the total image with opaque versions of the warped maps so they can be better seen.

Despite all the frustration, it's pretty exciting to see the final picture!