Street traders are central to food security in Johannesburg. But since being declared an essential service under lockdown, street trade in South Africa’s biggest city has returned to uneven ground.
found that almost nine in every 10 Johannesburg households normally get their food from informal markets or street traders.Beyond feeding the city, there are other ways in which the informal food system is well geared for the Covid-19 moment, according to Caroline Skinner, a senior researcher at the University of Cape Town’s African Centre for Cities.
Unable to secure one of the limited trading spaces in the Yeoville Market, Malefahlo ordinarily sells vegetables from the neighbourhood’s pavements. But despite being granted a permit by the City of Johannesburg’s department of economic development to trade during the lockdown, City officials have refused to allow her to trade on the pavement. She has resorted to selling small bags of wild spinach covertly on street corners and, at the age of 65, running away from City officials if they arrive.
Remittances like those Malefahlo used to send every month are no longer as central to South Africa’s rural homes as they once were. Economists at thehave shown that the proportion of South African households receiving remittances has decreased since 1993, when nearly one in every four homes received remittances. Nevertheless, in cases like Malefahlo’s, the lockdown has severed lifegiving economic links between the city and countryside.
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