Exploring participatory planning practices for informal street traders in small towns : the case of Ladysmith CBD

Abstract

The reality of informal street trading across the African continent has not been fully recognised as a legitimate economic activity through meaningful participatory planning practices in the design and demarcation of trading spaces in CBDs. This has driven challenges of inclusion in development plans, overlooked positive linkages that exist within the formal-informal economies and limited service delivery in terms of decent working conditions for traders through repressive practices that street traders face constantly. The regulatory and governance relationships between street traders and local government practitioners have been difficult and complicated. Although there are progressive practices in the governance of street trading in other developing and less developed countries, local government practitioners continue to restrict trading activities in public spaces. The aim of this research is to explore the extent of participatory planning practices applied to the governance of street traders in the small town of Ladysmith, KwaZulu Natal. The literature review highlights various exclusionary discourses around the exclusion of street traders that are incompatible with the theories of participatory planning. This is exacerbated by the practitioner’s continual struggle with apartheid planning approaches that hold negative narratives which illegalise street trading. The latter results in the imposition of restrictive regulatory bylaws on street trading in the CBD. A qualitative case study approach was used in this study to produce context-dependent knowledge. Direct observations of trading environments and semi-structured interviews were conducted with street traders and municipal practitioners to assist in answering the research question. A qualitative thematic analysis was used in this research to identify themes that address the research question. The results showed that there are inconsistences in the street trading governance system of the municipality and that participation is well articulated in local urban development policies, but that implementation stages exclude traders. This research concluded that the extent of participatory planning in Ladysmith appeared to be restrictive towards street traders in the CBD. Therefore, it is recommended that municipal practitioners establish meaningful and progressive practices that will benefit both the municipality and street traders.