Abstract

In most cases, in South Africa, informal trading policies, which aim to formally integrate informal trading in an urban setup in order to harness the socioeconomic developmental potential often fuel tension. In essence, urban planning towards modernization of projects often contradicts plans to promote local economic development for informal trading. The objective of this paper sought to present the concept of a state-led and politically-facilitated urban regeneration programs to integrate informal trading in spite of the contradictions between the two (informal trading as an urban informality-unlawful, and urban regeneration as an urban formality-lawful) as a new theoretical construct in Africa using qualitative research, and case studies from the three metropolitan cities of South Africa, including the City of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. The findings were that management approach towards informal trading in South Africa has shifted from a more repressive approach towards a regulatory approach, and are largely successful.

Keywords: Informal trading, Informal economy, Urban informality, Urban regeneration