Integrating the informal economy in urban planning and governance: A case study of the process of...

IDPR, 26 (4) 2004

Francie Lund and Caroline Skinner

Integrating the informal economy in urbanplanning and governance

A case study of the process of policy development inDurban, South Africa

Local government in post-apartheid South Africa received a new mandate to play an active role in economic

development, as well as to promote public participation. This article explores Durban’s attempts to grapple

with these new challenges with respect to the informal economy. In 1999 Durban sought a policy to

accommodate the need to support the growth of economic opportunities for all informal workers, especially

women, at the same time as enabling the regulation of what had become been a rapidly deregulated

use of public space for trading. Durban embarked on a consultative process of policy development,

which was designed to allow the meaningful participation of different interest groups. It is argued that this

policy development process was unusual as it actively sought out consultation with poorer people in their

roles as workers; it focused on deepening participation within local government and aimed to secure an

integrative approach to the informal economy. The article aims to contribute to debates about

participation in development planning processes generally and, more specifically, to speak to more

pessimistic assessments of participation at a local level in South Africa in the post-apartheid period.

The informal economy is growing in both developing and developed countries, andthere is a strong correlation between being poor and operating in the informaleconomy (see ILO, for a summary of recent statistics). With the internationaltrend of decentralisation of the state, the role of local government in shaping andregulating the environment of those working informally is an important site ofanalysis. In South Africa, this site has a special significance because of thecommitment of the first democratically elected national government to greatercitizen participation; the Constitution gave local government a specific mandate to dothis. How open is government, however, to the participation of the formerlyexcluded, particularly the poor? Where spaces for participation are opened up, howcan they be institutionalised and embedded in ways that last?

Post-apartheid studies of participation at the local level (for example, Bremner,; Heller, ; Pieterse, ; Williams, ) have focused on the participationof poorer people as citizens. Here, we report on an initiative in which the localgovernment in Durban embarked on a process of developing a policy for the informal

Francie Lund is Senior Research Fellow and Caroline Skinner is Research Fellow, both at the School of DevelopmentStudies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban 4041, South Africa; email: [email protected];[email protected]

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Francie Lund and Caroline Skinner432

economy using a consultative and participatory process. It is unusual in that it activelysought out consultations with poorer people, primarily in their roles as workers, andprioritised them over general categories of ‘civil society’. Further, it focused ondeepening participation within the local government in the policy developmentprocess. Finally, the policy development process itself aimed to secure an integrativeapproach to the informal economy, wherein informal economic activities aremainstreamed into general urban and economic planning, and into the thinking ofinterest groups within local government and society as a whole.

The process was instituted at the end of , and the policy was adopted at theend of , just prior to the local elections which would mark the final stage in thetransition to a metropolitan government. Thus institutional transformation wasalready under way. In the s, South Africa’s cities engaged in change processes:new staffing policies aimed to make councils more ethnically representative of thepopulation; there was a shift in organisational culture; and cities were grappling withtheir new developmental mandate. Long-standing council officials had experiencedtwo or three rounds of restructuring since , depending on which local authoritythey worked in. For many, it was a time of uncertainty and lack of direction. Somelong-standing staff members did not know whether they had future careers in localgovernment; many new staff members had little local government experience.

Officials and the newly elected politicians were divided in their approaches to theinformal economy. Most were very aware that the creation of employmentopportunities in Durban was a high, if not the highest, priority. However, while somesaw the promotion of opportunities and spaces for informal workers as anappropriate path, others wanted the streets cleared of street traders, seeing this as oneway of achieving better management and thereby a healthier climate for investment.Underlying this was a profound contest about the image of the city, with aEurocentric and ordered model being posited against an African and chaotic one(Popke and Ballard, ).

The authors of this paper were external advisers to local government in thisinitiative, and we thus cannot present an objective evaluation. We think it is aninteresting story, and we can tell it from our particular perspective(s). Elsewhere weare in the process of describing and analysing the content of the policy. Here, we limitourselves to a description of the policy process, drawing attention to some obviousstrengths and weaknesses. Many of the innovations drew from and built on projectsand pilot programmes that officials in Durban local government had alreadyundertaken (particularly within the areas of health, support for small business, andarea pilot projects), and which were formally instituted in the resulting policy.

The outline of the paper is as follows. The first section reviews responses to theinformal economy under apartheid and during the transition. The following sectiongives a brief overview of the informal economy in South Africa and in Durban. We

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Integrating the informal economy in urban planning and governance 433

then describe Durban’s policy response to the informal economy in the mid- and lates, consider the rationale for the policy process and outline the main points of thepolicy content. These three sections set the scene for the analysis of the process ofpolicy development, to which the rest of the paper is addressed. The following twosections describe the task team and its mandate for ‘inclusiveness’, which dictated theway the participatory process was undertaken for interest groups within municipalstructures and the general public, especially organisations of informal workers. Therole of research in deepening understanding and facilitating agreement about policyoptions is then described. We then go on to summarise the process of getting thepolicy drafted and passed by the municipality. Though progress with implementationhas to date been patchy, we then identify policy recommendations which could lead tothe continuing inclusion of the interests of associations of informal workers inmunicipal decision making – in effect, how to turn a ‘transient consultative event’(Cornwall, ) into embedded institutional practice. The final section gives ourassessment of some strengths and weaknesses of the policy development initiative.

Responses to the informal economy under apartheid andduring the transitionApartheid was critical to the formation (and the distortion) of the South Africaninformal economy. A key component of apartheid was a system of contract andmigrant labour. Apartheid imposed a racially hierarchical system of access toeconomic opportunity and activity for the four ‘racial groups’, in the interests of thewhite minority. The most extensive restrictions were imposed on the Africanpopulation, followed by ‘coloured’ and Indian people. Restrictions were imposed onaccess to skills development for certain occupations, the right to establish and operatebusinesses and the range of goods that could be sold (see Standing et al., , –,for a list of relevant legislation). The impact of more than a century of repressivelegislation on the development of entrepreneurial economic activities – formal andinformal – by black people is often underestimated.

By the early s, in the face of the failure of the homeland system to stem blackurbanisation, the national government’s attitude to small black enterprises shifted toone of greater acceptance. During the s, the informal economy was increasinglysupported as a substitute for welfare provision by the state. Government’s changingattitude towards the informal economy at the national level, however, was not neces-sarily mirrored at the local level. As Watkinson (, ) points out, in the s

The apartheid government imposed an official system of four main racial groups: African, ‘coloured’ (of mixeddescent), Indian and white. The three groups not classified as ‘white’ were referred to as ‘black’, in line withpopular usage. We use these four groups, as legislation and resource allocation were differentially imposed.

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‘deregulation by local authorities was either non-existent, or very partial’. A componentof the informal economy that was of particular concern to local government wasstreet trading. Until the late s, local authorities kept a tight rein on street tradingactivities. It was very difficult to get a licence to trade and the laws required streettraders to relocate continuously. Street traders were consistently and often violentlyharassed.

From the late s onwards, there was an initiative from the national state toforce local governments to adopt a more liberal approach to the informal economy.This culminated in the Businesses Act. This national law reduced the powers oflocal authorities to develop and implement laws restricting trading. It represented acomplete legal turnabout from a situation in which traders could not trade (with a fewexceptions) to a situation where traders could trade freely (with a few exceptions).Consequently, there was a rapid increase in the numbers of street traders in all urbanareas. Managing this has been an ongoing challenge for local governments during thes.

In the political transition, local government has been given significantly moreautonomy, as well as new tasks. Most notably, the Constitution (section )commits local government to ‘promote social and economic development’ (emphasisadded). The Constitution specifies that one of the objects of local government is ‘toencourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in thematters of local government’. The new national government prioritised smallbusiness development, under which the informal economy is incorporated. However,these policies have tended to exclude the needs and interests of poorer workers or ofvery small enterprises (see, for example, Rogerson, ). Local government has thushad to fill the gaps.

Local governments have been grappling with these new roles while undergoingsubstantial institutional change. In Durban, for example, under apartheid substantialblack areas both north and south of the city were under the authority of thehomeland KwaZulu. By the early s, there were some separate local authoritiesgoverning what was to become the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA). Newboundaries were drawn in a process of careful negotiation from the early sonwards; this resulted in a two-tier system comprising a metropolitan governmentand six local government substructures. The first democratic local governmentelections were held in . After these elections the city entered another round ofinternal restructuring and further redrawing of city boundaries. This culminated inthe formation of the eThekwini Municipality.

eThekwini is the Zulu name for Durban, which was officially renamed at the local government elections.We make reference to the more commonly used ‘Durban’ throughout this paper.

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The informal economy in South Africa and DurbanAn understanding of the challenges faced by local government in its new role ofsupporting economic development, and particularly the informal economy as onecomponent of this, must be based on an understanding of the work that people do.

According to the September Labour Force Survey (LFS), per cent ofpeople who worked were working informally. This comprised ,, peopleoperating in the informal sector (which the Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) defines asunregistered firms and their employees), and ,, domestic workers. There havebeen a number of changes in the way that StatsSA collects and calculates labour forcedata, which makes trends over time difficult to determine. Casale et al., ()recalculated StatsSA data to ensure comparability of years for the period to, and showed that the number of people involved in informal work grew, makingit one of the few areas of employment growth in the post-apartheid period.

Figure shows the distribution of informal workers by industrial sector, accordingto the September LFS. Informal employment is concentrated in trade, with justunder half of all informal workers located in this sector (a high proportion comparedwith other developing countries; see ILO, ). Further, there are significant numbersof people working in construction, manufacturing, services and private households.

Figure shows monthly incomes in the informal economy. Over half – per cent– of those working in the informal economy earn R or less, with a significantnumber of people reporting earning nothing. Only per cent earn more than R,

Figure 1 Employment in the informal economy in South Africa by industry, September 2003Source: Adapted from StatsSA, 2004, vii.

3 Exchange rate at data collection (September ): R. = UK£; R. = US$.

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a month. This suggests a correlation between being poor and working in the informaleconomy, and this confirms previous analyses of LFS data, such as that done by Meth().

Table shows the gender and racial classification of those in formal and informalwork. In line with the worldwide trend (Sethuraman, ), in South Africa there is agender dimension to the informal economy. Although more men than women work inthe informal economy, the difference is less than is the case for the formal economy.Note that the informal figure excludes approximately one million domestic workers, per cent of whom are women. Within the informal economy, smaller scale surveysand qualitative research indicate that women tend to be over-represented in the lesslucrative tasks (see, for example, Lund, for a gendered re-analysis and synthesisof research on street trading in South Africa in the s). Finally, with respect torace, the majority of those working in the informal economy are African. Africanpeople are over-represented in the informal economy, whereas whites are significantlyover-represented in formal work.

With regard to the informal economy as a source of employment in Durban itself,a study of street trading activities conducted in calculated that there were ,street traders in the DMA (Watkinson, ); this number is likely to have sub-stantially increased. The traditional medicine (muthi) trade was estimated to generate

Figure 2 Monthly income in the informal economy in South Africa, September 2003Source: adapted from StatsSA, 2004, 27.

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, jobs in Durban (Mander, ). It is also clear that, although individualincomes are often low, cumulatively these activities are worth a lot of money. In ,more than R million was spent on raw and prescribed products in the RussellStreet muthi market (Mander, ). Dobson () estimated that there was an annualturnover of over R billion in the primary commuter node in the Warwick Junctionarea of the central city; he estimated that R million-worth of cooked mielies (corn onthe cob) was sold in Durban’s inner-city streets in the mielie season.

Durban’s policy response to the informal economyA study comparing policy and practice towards street traders in Cape Town,Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria concluded that Durban had made more progressthan South Africa’s other major metropolitan areas (Skinner, ). Not only hadDurban established a department dedicated to street trader management andsupport, but it had also allocated more resources to infrastructure development fortraders than any other city. Durban also has one of the most impressive examples inthe country of integrating street traders into city plans: the urban renewal project inthe area surrounding the primary transport node in the city centre, Warwick Junction.This area accommodates between , and , traders, and the project providedattractive and appropriately designed trader infrastructure, as well as services likechildcare facilities and affordable overnight accommodation. These facilities weredesigned and delivered in consultation with stakeholders. In terms of ongoingmanagement, consultative forums have produced an unprecedented level of self-regulation that keeps the area clean, attractive and crime-free (see Grest, ;Hemson, and Saunders, for descriptions and analyses of different aspectsof this project).

Table 1 Formal and informal workers in South Africa, 2003, by sex and race

Formal (%) Informal (%) Proportion of total population (%)

SexMale 61.4 56.2 47.6Female 38.6 43.8 52.4

RaceAfrican 58.8 89.5 79.4Coloured 14.4 5.7 9.1Indian 5.2 1.1 2.7White 21.6 3.5 8.8

Source: adapted from StatsSA, 2004, 23.

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In the late s, the city acknowledged that, although progress had been madewith street trading, there was no overall policy guiding the city’s interventions withrespect to the informal economy. Specific problems were identified: there was nocitywide vision of the place of the informal economy in the emerging overalleconomic strategy for the city; there was a mismatch between a generally progressiveapproach to informal workers on the one hand, and the organisational culture on theother; there were complex and uncoordinated institutions; licensing proceduresdiscouraged the registration of informal workers; street traders, the most visiblecategory of informal workers, had a high and negative public profile; there was nocoherent policy about planning and building new markets; and, finally, there were noinstitutionalised and continuous structures for negotiation with traders (eThekwiniUnicity Council, ).

In November , a task team was formed by the North Central Local Counciland the South Central Local Council to formulate an ‘effective and inclusive’informal economy policy. These central councils were two of the six local councils inthe DMA. After an -month policy formulation process in which there wassubstantial consultation with stakeholders both within and outside the council, thetwo central councils approved and adopted the policy. The new eThekwini MunicipalCouncil then adopted it as metropolitan-wide policy in February .

The policy reflects important shifts in thinking, and, while this paper focuses onthe process of its development, we summarise the main points of the policy here. Theprimary point of departure is that the informal economy is critical to economicdevelopment. The policy points out that the informal economy creates jobs andincomes for many of Durban’s citizens (eThekwini Unicity Council, ). Theseactivities should be conceptualised as part of economic planning and development,rather than being seen as components of poverty alleviation or welfare projects. Theinterdependence of the formal and informal parts of the economy is reiterated, as isthe interdependence between the core of the city and the periphery.

There are other innovations that make a difference to those working in theinformal economy in the city. First, the policy commits the city to providing supportservices to people who work for very small enterprises, addressing the gap in nationalgovernment small business policy. It suggests the provision of basic business skillstraining, legal advice, health education and assistance in accessing financial services.It commits the city to a proactive role in achieving this: for example, it is suggestedthat the city should subsidise training. Second, the policy suggests a sectoral orindustry-by-industry approach to assisting those working in the informal economy, inmuch the same way as is done with global value chain analysis for strategic planningin formal industries. This would entail comprehensive analyses of different sectorswith a view to the city designing and implementing coherent and focused interventions.Third, the important role of worker organisations in the informal economy is firmly

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acknowledged. It suggests that capacity-building programmes for both organisationsand local government officials are needed if organisations are to be strengthened.

Finally, a number of recommendations relate to the improved management ofeconomic activities which are likely to have a positive impact on informal workers.Area-based management, for example, offers the opportunity to resolve coordinationproblems and encourage the participation of interest groups in planning andmanagement, and is key to greater self-regulation in the informal economy. This hasalready happened in the more successful urban renewal initiatives, such as theWarwick Junction Project. Decentralised management, combined with a programmethat assists informal workers’ representatives to articulate their needs, is likely tocreate a better work environment.

There is little doubt that, if Durban’s Informal Economy Policy were to be fullyimplemented, the environment of those working in the informal economy in the citywould improve. That the policy was unanimously accepted by the central councilsindicates a political commitment to this shift in thinking. It was, however, accepted ata time of institutional transformation as the city became a ‘unicity’, and implemen-tation has thus far been patchy and uneven.

Embarking on the policy processThe body that was formed to drive the policy process was the Technical Task Team(TTT) for an Effective and Inclusive Policy for the Informal Economy for Durban’sNorth and South Central Local Councils. The ‘technical’ implicitly signals that it wasnot a representative body, nor one run by politicians. The ‘effective’ meant that theresulting policy had to be feasible and manageable; it was not to be a ‘dream policy’,replete with progressive rhetoric but impossible to implement. This was almostcertainly a response, at the local government level, to what were becoming commoncriticisms within the new South Africa: delays in the implementation of policies, andthe failure to deliver promised goods.

The ‘inclusive’ referred to three issues, all of which had implications for the scopeof the consultative process. First, it was to be inclusive of new citizens, especially thepoor and women. It was to hear and consider the interests and opinions of peoplewho had not in the past participated in decision-making processes, within bothgovernment and the informal economy. It meant that the policy should not just coverstreet traders (which would be the focus of many officials); it should consider alsoother informal workers, such as home-based workers. However, the consultation wasto be limited to ‘interested and affected parties’ (IAPs), and this term sets limits: itsignifies those who are directly concerned.

Second, it was to be inclusive of different spaces in the city: the policy was toaddress the needs of a geographical area which had been systematically unevenly

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developed in the apartheid years and before. The policy was to consider not just thebetter-resourced and more high profile Central Business District (CBD), but theentire area of the two central councils. The vast area outside the CBD included thewealthiest suburbs (formerly whites-only) and racially segregated Indian, colouredand African areas, which had pockets of wealth, but which were on the wholeoverwhelmingly poor. The ‘areas of greatest need’ were where the majority of poorerblack people lived: townships which had received little, in the past, in the way ofinfrastructure and urban amenities.

Third, the TTT was to be inclusive of different departments. It was set up to be aninterdepartmental body, comprising key personnel who were briefed to treat this as apriority project. The Metropolitan Council’s Economic Development Departmenthad two representatives, in addition to the chairperson. From the two centralcouncils, there was permanent representation of senior or near-senior members of anumber of departments and divisions, including development and planning, supportfor trade and small business, health, police, and auditing. In addition to these linefunction departments, there were representatives of two of Durban’s pilot projects inurban renewal: the Warwick Junction Urban Renewal Project and the BeachfrontCommittee. TTT meetings regularly started with one-off presentations from leadersof other citywide programmes, so that people could locate themselves and their workin the context of overall changes in the city. All TTT members commented, from thefirst meeting onwards, on how rare it was to meet across departments and acrossprogrammes in this way.

As external advisers to this TTT, we played active and central roles. We had justcompleted two years of research for a national organisation of informal womenworkers, the Self-Employed Women’s Union (SEWU). SEWU was rare amonginformal worker organisations in that it was properly constituted, membership-based,had solely women members, and had been active in significant policy-making forumsduring the transition (Lund and Skinner, ). We had a primary academic andpolitical interest in the working conditions of informal workers, and a commitment toimproving those conditions. We both played active roles in the international researchand advocacy network WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalising andOrganising).

The TTT members participated in different ways: collecting data, gatheringexisting policy reports and other documentation, identifying research gaps, providingregular progress reports to the TTT about related initiatives, and participating in adhoc subgroup meetings. All along the way, a series of reports acted as organising toolsfor the policy development process: an Interim Report, used primarily internally bythe TTT; an Issues Document, used primarily for the consultation processes; and thefinal Policy Document. These texts played an important role in the overall process,and they served a number of functions. They identified the main issues and placed

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them in a coherent conceptual framework; they forged agreement within the TTT, aswell as identifying strongly divergent opinions; they encouraged focused discussionand participation; and they enabled the consideration of realistic policy alternatives.The documents were drafted by one of the external advisers, in close collaborationwith the chairperson and other TTT members, and each one was submitted to thefull TTT for an iterative process of comment and amendment, and further commentand amendment. Once accepted in the TTT, though, the chairperson insisted oncollective ownership of the positions in the documents.

The Interim Report was tabled at an early meeting of the TTT as a tentative draftdocument. It performed the following functions:

• it summarised the context for policy development;

• it gave a theoretical approach to the informal economy, as well as facts and figureson the size and economic contribution of the informal economy in Durban;

• it outlined Durban’s past approaches to the informal economy, and identified thestrengths and weaknesses of these approaches and experiences; and

• it identified areas for research which needed to be addressed urgently.

Box The Interim Report

Its central messages were:

• The informal economy is here to stay.

• The informal economy is a growing global phenomenon: Durban is notalone in the country (or indeed in the world) in facing urban managementchallenges regarding informal work and enterprises.

• The informal economy should be mainstreamed into thinking about thecity’s economy and development.

• It is possible to have productivity-enhancing interventions.

• It is possible to combine support for the informal economy with having a vitaland well-managed city.

• Good research will inform the policy alternatives.

These position statements were sandwiched between two framing principles:

• an opening statement which said that the point of departure for the policywas the new South African Constitution, which emphasises citizen partici-pation and local government’s role in consultation processes; and

• a closing statement which said that ‘the way ahead has to be one ofnegotiated solutions’ (TTT, ).

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The Interim Report was a deliberative intervention, used to connect the past to thepresent, valorise good precedents, and frankly acknowledge problems. It was used as avehicle to present a series of position statements, in order to get consensus wherepossible, and to expose major areas of disagreement early on.

There was remarkable agreement in the TTT about most of these centralmessages, largely because they built on work already done, using precedents alreadyset by the city in recent years. Some of the history was fiercely contested: some feltthat their or their departments’ past interventions were misinterpreted, or, worse still,discounted and ignored. The report was amended to accommodate many of thecriticisms, but the central messages remained intact, and formed the basis for possiblepolicy options. The Interim Report was a way of building the team early on; it servedto get buy-in to the principles of TTT participation – that people must comment, andcomments would be taken seriously, but that once a final report was accepted, itbelonged to every member of the TTT.

Internal consultation within government‘Participatory’ consultation processes usually involve local government consultingwith external stakeholders. In the new South African democracy, consultation neededto happen within local government itself as well. First, there was a new cadre ofelected councillors representing those who had previously been disenfranchised.Second, the voices of powerful and experienced senior officials, mostly white, neededto be complemented by the voices of those lower in the hierarchy, who were mostlyblack, and who were less able to get a hearing.

Early in the work of the TTT, an intensive round of interviews with officials andpoliticians took place, usually attended by the TTT chairperson and the two advisers.Provincial officials, and academic or consultant advisers to other ongoing policy workin the city, were also interviewed. These interviews helped the TTT to get a sense ofthe policy climate, and the parameters within which the TTT would have to work.They were a means of getting useful information about institutional structures (andother city policy initiatives) rapidly. They were also a means of informing key peopleabout the policy development process.

Parallel initiatives which the TTT consulted and engaged with included the CBDRevitalisation Strategy, the Integrated Development Plan, the Safer Cities Initiative,the city-level small business policy, the legislative development towards administrativelaw, and the development of new health legislation on food sold and prepared byinformal traders. Particularly important in attempting to mainstream the informaleconomy into city thinking was engaging with Monitor – the consulting firm assistingDurban (and other major South African cities) in developing Long-Term Develop-ment Strategies (-year plans) – in an attempt to get Monitor to include the informal

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economy in its otherwise high-end ‘best practice’ model.As the department exclusively dedicated to managing and supporting the informal

economy, the Informal Trade and Small Business Opportunities (ITSBO) Branch wasa major focus of the council’s internal consultation process. ITSBO had significantfirst-hand knowledge of informal economy dynamics and the management anddevelopment challenges faced by the city. It would be central to the implementationof the policy, and it was important that all staff should be involved and have a sense ofownership of the policy process and thus the final outcome. Like most bureaucraticorganisations, it was hierarchically structured, with senior managers, area managersand site supervisors. Senior managers took their authority seriously, and by and large(with two significant exceptions) this hierarchy reflected racial patterns, with whitepeople at the top and black people at the bottom.

Senior managers were on the TTT and had plenty of space to influence the policythere. The consultation included all of the ITSBO staff ( people) in two sets ofmeetings: one with area managers and the other with site supervisors. This wasdesigned so that no staff member joined his or her direct superior within theconsultation process. The Issues Document (see Box ) was used as the basis forconsultation. Inclusiveness was encouraged by making it available in English andZulu; by asking the head of ITSBO to assign time during work hours for theparticipants to read and think about the document before the consultation; and bygrounding the discussions in the everyday experiences of the staff.

Box The ten key issues

The sectors within the informal economy. The location of sites for working informally. Conditions of entry and access to informal work and enterprises. Conditions of operation of informal enterprises. The role of local government with respect to formal and informal

businesses. The role of government in determining the type and extent of support given

to informal workers and their enterprises. The role of local government in providing support to organisations of

informal workers, and the representation of informal workers’ associationsin local government.

The institutional location of the informal economy within local government. Shaping the image of the informal economy. Building capacity within government and within worker organisations.

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Area managers were involved in a variety of tasks, which led them to engage withdifferent departments and interest groups, including the city police, architecture,licensing, land transactions, trader committees, traders and those applying for tradingpermits. The area managers expressed a number of primary concerns. First, therewas the issue of a lack of capacity – too few staff, too little money, and not enoughtime for developing and supporting enterprises. They also were concerned about thediverse roles that they had to play, including promoting enterprises and enforcingrules. One said that, when dealing with traders, ‘in one day you find yourself beingeverything from a counsellor to a policeman’.

A few years previously, ITSBO had been responsible for both promotion andenforcement. As it felt that these roles were not easily reconcilable, it had succeeded ingetting the enforcement function taken over by City Police. However, the relationshipbetween ITSBO and City Police had never been easy. In the consultation, areamanagers identified a structural problem in the relationship: the police work on arotational basis, so that every time they are contacted to act on street trading, ITSBOstaff have to deal with a new person. Furthermore, serious concerns were raisedabout the unpredictability of the police. One manager described how, on oneoccasion, the police had removed permits from trader assistants on the beachfront,without consulting ITSBO. She described how this had seriously compromisedrelationships with traders that she had built up over a long period.

Area managers also described their sometimes difficult relationship with citycouncillors, which they saw as political interference. As one expressed it: ‘You willoften find that councillors phone and ask us to arrange something for someone.’ Thisovert and explicit patronage was especially pronounced with regard to the allocationof trading sites. ‘Before a new market is established, we will spend a lot of timecarefully recording who was informally located where, and formulate a list. When themarket has been built then the councillors want to have a say in who is allocated sites.This is impossible for us.’ As elections approached, this interference increased.

Finally, area managers also discussed the challenges of working with traderrepresentatives. They knew they were expected to consult with traders, but theyexpressed confusion as to whom they should be negotiating with. The distinction wasmade between existing associations and committees, with the latter being groups thatwere elected to manage an area. One manager said that he was often told bycouncillors to accommodate the position of a particular association, despite the factthat there was an established committee of traders through which this associationshould be represented. This area manager suggested that the policy should state thatif there is an elected committee then this is the group you should work through.Others suggested that the policy should outline a set of guidelines to ensurerepresentation – that is, that representative bodies must be constituted of traders, andmust hold elections using democratic procedures.

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These consultations with area managers served to demonstrate to all on the TTTthe way local government processes function in the absence of policy. The impor-tance of appropriate resource allocation, improved mechanisms of coordinationbetween departments, and transparent processes and guidelines were clearly high-lighted. In the absence of these, staff lower down in the hierarchy get caught betweenmore powerful actors, and called on to exercise patronage on behalf of powerfulactors.

The site supervisors are the frontline personnel in direct daily contact with thetraders. The consultation meetings with them were lively, and they raised some issueswhich were similar to those of the area managers, including frustration with thepolice and the difficulties of dealing with trader organisations. The site supervisorsdemonstrated in-depth knowledge about the economics of trading: for example, theyhad a good analysis of the monopolies of supply to fruit and vegetable tradersoperating in the inner city, as well as the need for product diversification among crafttraders operating at the beachfront. Consequently, they had constructive and focusedideas about possible developmental interventions: for example, cooperative buyinginitiatives, and the need for craft traders (who were increasingly selling to foreigntourists) to be kept up to date with foreign currency exchange rates. They alsoidentified a series of more general business development problems: for example, thattraders often did not know how to calculate the difference between profit andturnover, and used informal rather than formal savings mechanisms.

Site supervisors argued strongly that they wanted not only to supervise or managetrading space, but also to be able to assist traders with their business problems. Theydid not like the title ‘site supervisor’, as it connoted too much of a management andcontrol function. As one said: ‘The name “site supervisor” makes me think of asecurity guard.’ They expressed the wish to be called community liaison officers,more suggestive of a developmental role. They acknowledged that they would need tobe trained to fulfil this more developmental, enterprise-focused role.

The consultation with the site supervisors informed the policy content in practicalways, particularly in how local government could provide enterprise support. It alsodemonstrated that there was an underutilised resource in ITSBO, and that thereshould be opportunities to re-skill existing staff. This directly informed some of theinterventions suggested in the policy.

Once the policy was drafted, a consultation process was held with all the ITSBOstaff. This process was less successful: the document had not been properly circulatedbeforehand, the senior staff dominated the meeting, and very few of the lower levelstaff raised concerns or made comments.

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External consultation with interest groupsThe TTT was tasked to conduct a consultation process with stakeholders external tocity government. The targeted interest groups were associations and organisations offormal business, associations and organisations of informal workers, formal tradeunions, development and civic forums in central and outlying areas, and communitypolicing forums. Local government under apartheid always had channels, formal andinformal, for communicating with the formal business sector (though black businesswas disadvantaged). In the s there had been an important precedent for Durban’swider engagement with informal workers. Durban had set up the Informal TradeTask Group, where formal and informal business had equal representation. SEWU,which participated in this Task Group, states: ‘A surprising amount of commonground was established just by the opportunity to thrash things out in this forum …popular myths, misunderstanding and misconceptions were disposed of and a lot ofcommon ground emerged’ (SEWU/StreetNet, , ).

In this policy initiative, a high priority was given to reaching formerly excludedgroups, especially organisations of informal workers and women. The prior research(Lund and Skinner, ) had described how organisations of informal workers, parti-cularly street traders, in South African cities were often fragile, inconsistent oropportunistic. They typically claimed thousands of members, but, as most did nothave regular elections, it was difficult to know who the leaders really represented, orwhether people who had signed up still considered themselves members. They wereusually headed by men, while the majority of members were women. The challengewas to design a process that would enhance the possibility of reaching usuallyunrepresented people.

The consultation was to be limited to a period of two months. Its purpose andlimits were expressed clearly: it was a vehicle to inform interest groups properly aboutthe process of policy development; it was furthermore a means through which thelocal government could get a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the informaleconomy and relationships within it; and, finally, it would enable local government tolisten to stakeholders’ ideas and opinions about a set of key policy issues, as identifiedin the Issues Document. However, it would be the TTT itself that would makerecommendations, which would then be accepted or rejected by the city governors.

A key tool used to encourage participation in the workshops was a simplifiedsummary of the Issues Document. Box summarises the ten key issues. For eachissue, a brief statement of the problem was given, followed by policy alternatives, andthen a set of questions for discussion at workshops with interest groups.

The consultants were briefed on the key issues, given a set of principles whichwere to be used to guide their facilitation process, and reported back to the TTT onhow the principles had been built into the design of each workshop or meeting. First,

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separate workshops were held for different interest groups; this was an attempt toovercome the unequal relationships of power that so often characterise multi-partyparticipatory exercises. Second, approaches had to be made to organisations, not toindividuals. This was an attempt to deal with the problem of strong individuals whowould claim to represent others.

The third guideline was that meeting processes should be designed to include theeasily marginalised, and especially poorer women. The English or Zulu versions ofthe Issues Document and summary were to be circulated ahead of time, in order togive interest groups time to prepare for the consultation. In this way it was hoped thatmore consultation space could be taken with discussing serious issues and prioritisingneeds and options, rather than with simply informing people about the issues. Fourth,there was to be transparency about purposes and the limits of consultation. Thefacilitators were to be clear about the local government’s commitment to consultationand negotiation, but were also to make clear that the council itself would make thefinal decisions about policy.

Six major workshops were held, involving more than people. There wereadditional individual interviews, face-to-face or by telephone, with people who couldnot attend workshops. The Issues Document was advertised in the press, and a phoneline was set up for those who wanted to respond; interested parties could also submitwritten comments.

Another significant event was a mass gathering which was held by the InformalTrading Management Board (ITMB). This event was notable for its size, for theconflict around it, and also for the fact that it was actually possible to undertake aform of participatory process in such a big gathering, contingent on skilledfacilitators. The Businesses Act had forced local authorities to consult traders inthe formulation of bylaws, and in Durban ITSBO was instrumental in establishingthe ITMB in response to the Businesses Act, and also when new bylaws were beingimplemented in –. By , the ITMB claimed to represent all street tradersoperating in the DMA. Although it was clear that the ITMB could garner support,there were concerns about how it was constituted. The International Alliance ofStreet Vendor Organisations (or StreetNet) and SEWU, in their joint submission tothe TTT (SEWU/StreetNet, ), pointed to a concern that, where a municipalityhas established its own negotiating partner, the partner is only free to represent itsmembers’ interests as far as these coincide with the municipality’s interests.

The TTT had had a special consultation with the ITMB leadership, and thenheard that the ITMB intended to use its annual general meeting (AGM) to bring

StreetNet is headquartered in Durban. The founder and former general secretary of SEWU became theinternational coordinator of StreetNet. At the time of the policy process she was associated with SEWU in avolunteer capacity, and authored their joint submission.

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together , traders to discuss the policy for the informal economy. The CityCouncil had in the past subsidised the AGM of the ITMB. The TTT chair agreedwith the ITMB leadership that the Council would subsidise the meeting, subject tothe following conditions: that a second day be added, for a workshop on the IssuesDocument; that entrance to this should be free; that a limited number of traders(about ) could be accommodated; and that discussions would take place in smallgroups, which would be led by outside facilitators. The idea of containing numberswas to try to get the ITMB to set up a system of representation from different organi-sations, and also to increase the possibility of meaningful discussions of the issues.

Approximately , traders attended the AGM, showing the ITMB’s ability tomuster traders for a particular occasion. As in past meetings, the Committee resortedto a well-known token electoral process: members demonstrated by a show of handsthat they confirmed the continuation of existing leaders in their current positions.The following day, more than traders arrived for the consultation, some sayingthey had been threatened into coming, and many having been made to pay the ITMBan ‘entrance fee’ of R. The ITMB leadership tried to prevent the external facili-tators from starting the meeting, and tried to prevent any discussion in small groups.After a two-hour delay, the facilitators courageously led groups of between and traders each.

A harsh judge could focus on the limited depth of these discussions with traders.Nevertheless, it was an honest attempt on the part of the TTT to reach out directlybeyond a few trader leaders, just as the internal consultations in ITSBO hadattempted to include additional voices to those of the senior managers. A seniorpolitician (who was a strong supporter of the policy development, and a chair of oneof the key decision-making committees through which the policy would have to pass)came to observe the consultation. Despite the large size of the groups, there wasintense concentration on the issues. The politician was deeply moved, and said to us:‘This is the new South Africa. This is not just about these people here today, it is aboutall of us, and our children, for the future.’

The role of research in the policy processA noteworthy aspect of this process was the role that research played, not only ininforming policy content, but in facilitating agreement on policy options. The TTTdrew on a substantial body of existing research and commissioned new studies. TheMetropolitan Economic Development Department had prioritised research to informplanning and policy making for the city in transition; the Interim Report hadidentified urgent gaps in research.

The research fell into four broad areas. First, a group of studies was commissionedto assess existing municipal facilities; one was a survey of traders in municipal markets

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and their customers, another was an assessment of a building that the council hadpurchased to support small-scale clothing manufacturers. Some were done by citystaff, others by external researchers. These studies profiled the tenants and their prob-lems, outlined management problems, assessed the viability of these interventions,and suggested improvements. Second, sector analyses were commissioned as a way topose more targeted questions about the role of local government in supportinginformal workers and their enterprises. A study had been done of the traditionalmedicine or muthi sector (Mander, ). The TTT commissioned a study of theformal–informal economy linkages in fresh fruit and vegetable distribution (Witt,) and clothing (Motala, ). Third, an analysis was commissioned of municipalresource allocation to the informal economy, drawing on gender budgetingtechniques (Budlender, ). The rationale was that the support given to formaleconomic development was fairly easy to find in the municipal budget, while thatgiven to informal enterprises was spread across budgetary items and difficult to find.The research was designed to highlight it. Finally, there was a study assessing thesupport services (focusing on training and access to savings and credit facilities)available to those working in the informal economy in the Durban area.

The research played a number of different roles. It helped to confront some of thenegative stereotypes that existed about informal traders. A good example of this wasthe issue of the relationship between formal and informal business. There is a widely-held belief that many informal traders are merely ‘fronts’ for formal businesses, thelatter thereby getting privileged and cheap access to public space. The sectoral casestudies demonstrated how complex the formal–informal business relationships were.Some of the research helped practically to illuminate some of the policy options thatwere available; it also deepened the understanding of many involved in the policyprocess. Some TTT members complained that the research contained little that wasnew; they said that they already knew about the issues from their long experience.However, this experience and understanding needed to be more widely and publiclyshared. The research enabled a better and more nuanced analytical framework to bepresented, which was accepted by the whole task team.

Settling on the policy recommendationsFollowing the consultation process, the policy was drafted and agreement forged, withthe help of work done within the TTT. There was also continuous communicationwith particular committees of the Council.

A very tentative draft of the policy was an exercise in synthesis, setting out theareas about which there was likely to be little or no disagreement (either within theCouncil or between internal and external views), and then outlining the likely pointsof disagreement. This was circulated to the TTT for comment. The comments con-

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firmed major points of disagreement; the draft was amended where possible, andthen points of disagreement were taken to a series of policy workshops – intensiveone- and two-day events of continuous discussion, argument, accommodation andconflict – until there was a framework for agreement. A new draft was rapidly circu-lated to TTT members, who could then share that draft with their department headsand others, and submit a further round of comments. The TTT made the decisionnot to share that draft with external stakeholders: time had run out, the main timedriver being the coming elections. It was anticipated that if the policy was not passedbefore then, the initiative would get lost in the inevitable new round of restructuringthat would follow.

In parallel to the draft being developed, the chairperson ensured that the initiativewas on the agenda of key strategic meetings of officials and politicians. Numerouspresentations were made to these committees, all with a view to informing people ofthe process, and to ensuring the smooth passage of the policy by people who had beenproperly informed of it. Despite a series of delays, the final policy was presented tothe appropriate decision-making committee in November , where it wasaccepted with the (extremely unusual) agreement of all political parties. Following theelections, it was accepted as a metropolitan-wide policy in February .

Marrying policy process and policy productCornwall () might describe the process we have outlined above as a ‘transientconsultative event’, and certainly, the broader challenge is how to embed the partici-patory elements of the policy development process into sustainable mechanisms forparticipation. These will be needed if there are to be continuous, non-intimidating,resilient and frequently used spaces for information sharing, discussion, negotiationand decision making.

There are a number of distinct places where the policy contains recommen-dations which could lead to healthy ongoing participatory processes. First, one way ofintegrating the informal economy with local governance and economic developmentis to create institutional locations that deal with formal and informal businesspeoplein the same place. The policy recommends integrated institutional structures at threelevels: areas or precincts, wards, and local government-wide. It acknowledges thatwhere formal and informal interests are included in the same policy forums, theremay be unequal power dynamics, and often the weaker voices of informal workersmay not be heard. Formal business has a long history of interacting with city decisionmakers; not only is it more used to doing so, but it is also better resourced and oftenmore articulate. This component of the policy is dependent on officials andpoliticians consciously creating opportunities for informal business to articulate itsconcerns. The success of this will depend in part on stronger organisations of

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informal workers (see below). There was also a frank acknowledgement in the policythat the capacity of local government needed to be developed, in order to deal withand manage informal workers and their organisations. This suggestion wasincorporated in the recommendation that training in negotiation skills should be oneof the core components of the retraining of officials.

The policy recommended appeals committees at both ward and metropolitanlevel, and this idea was welcomed by officials who felt the burden of being theprimary decision makers in disputes. Such a mechanism is one of the levers whichcould help to develop a cooperative mode of engagement between formal andinformal businesses, as well as between informal businesses and local government. Itis also a way of avoiding expensive and lengthy judicial processes to settle conflicts.Appeal committees would consist of representatives of formal and informalbusinesses, as well as councillors, officials and community leaders.

Second, the policy forcefully moves towards more inclusive legislation and regulations,so that the interests of more marginalised groups can be expressed. It recommendsthat ‘framework principles for bylaw amendment and reform should be widelydisseminated through popular radio and print media, in addition to the municipality’sown organs of communication with citizens’. It was stipulated that they should be inaccessible languages (in Zulu as well as in English), and should use gender-sensitiveterms. Given that the passage of new bylaws would be time-consuming, it was recom-mended that in the meantime a code of conduct should be drawn up, developedthrough negotiations with organisations of informal workers and other stakeholders.

Third, the local government recognised the need to strengthen organisations ofinformal workers. Institutional spaces are needed in which to voice demands, andorganisations of workers need to find and use these platforms.

The policy recommended that local government should have a role in assisting inthe formation of organisations, for example by providing legal services in drawing upconstitutions. The policy adopted SEWU’s model of three core, minimumrequirements for representative democratic organisation: a written constitution,ratified by members; a leadership that is elected in a transparent fashion; and updatedmembership lists that are open to scrutiny. Incentives for organisations to becomeproperly constituted came in the form of gaining recognition, and getting access tothe recommended negotiating forum.

The policy further suggests specific roles for local government in assisting with themaintenance and development of existing organisations. Among these was theproactive use of existing assets and services, and a number of practical actions weresuggested, most of which had been tried by pilot projects, such as that at WarwickJunction. For example, facilities such as meeting halls could be offered free of chargefor meetings, and staff could provide secretarial and legal assistance.

Finally, the policy advocated transparency in budgetary processes. This was partly

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to empower informal worker organisations in relation to formal business organisa-tions, which had greater access to information about how city money was spent. Thepolicy stressed the responsibility of councillors to inform their constituents aboutbudgetary processes; it also picked up on the interest that there was, after , in theparticipation of citizens in government budgetary processes.

The recommendations on the role of local government in assisting informalworker organisations might look naive: do they assume a benign set of governors,seriously looking for impartial negotiating partners, in the general public interest? Isthis neoliberalism at its worst? There is a danger of the local government setting uporganisations which never become independent representatives. Possibly informalworkers would do better to get help from other sources when constituting themselves– paralegal or human rights organisations, for example. However, the positivepotential role of local government in making municipal facilities available seems to beincontrovertible and uncontroversial. It is important to note that, without exception,all of the successful examples of innovation in Durban in creating spaces fornegotiations between council and informal workers depended on the use of existingmunicipal assets. That is, they depended on the council having decided not to privatiseand outsource concrete assets such as buildings, public spaces and staff.

ConclusionLocal government may have, through policies or their absence, a powerful influenceon active civic participation. In her classic article on citizen’s participation in planningprocesses, Arnstein () used the metaphor of a ladder of participation, withtokenism and manipulation at the lower level, and full and meaningful participationat the highest, where citizens make decisions about local issues based on a well-developed understanding of the issues at hand.

We cannot and should not offer a comprehensive analysis of where the Durbaninitiative would fall on this ladder, as we were too close to the process. We feel justified,though, in identifying strengths and weaknesses from our own perspective. We notethat we feel more optimistic about this initiative than others have been about othercity initiatives in South Africa (for example, Heller, writing on city planningprocesses in general; Pieterse, on a range of participatory forums in Cape Town;and Williams, on Area Coordinating Committees in Cape Town).

In the rush to devise policies in this time of transformation, common errors havebeen made which have worked against the development of an institutional contextwhich would support policy adoption and implementation. Typically, these include anoverambitious and unfocused policy design brief, unrealistic expectations of what canbe achieved in a consultative process, underestimation of the time required (especiallywhere processes are expected to be participatory), and a mismatch between the

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objectives of the initiative and the time required to do it. Often, external consultantsare taken on and not given enough time to do the work properly, and/or are notfamiliar with the institutional context or the main issues.

In the light of this, we can identify a number of factors which we think cruciallyaffected the Durban process. First, the local government prepared a brief verycarefully, for the TTT itself and to guide external advisers. This brief, and the designof the initiative, were strongly influenced by a TTT member, an official who himselfhad been part of prior policy processes. His political project was deeply democratic,but he had an astute eye for addressing the tension between broad inclusiveparticipation and the need to get the job done. Second, local government allocated areasonable amount of time – about a year – for the whole process. This was criticallyimportant in terms of enabling the external advisers to get institutionally connected,enabling a consultative process which we think went beyond tokenism (see below),allowing new research to be commissioned to fill gaps in understanding, and enablingsharply diverging views about some policy alternatives to be resolved. Third, thechairperson was himself very knowledgeable about informal trade, was committed totransformation, and was allowed to prioritise this initiative for most of the period ofthe TTT’s work. Fourth, appropriately senior members of staff were identified toparticipate in the work. Their attitudes ranged from seriously active internal cham-pioning to somewhat begrudging involvement. Finally, a budget was allocated toenable the process to take place. Importantly, money was set aside for thecommunications process, the consultative process and research.

Not all the interest groups were evenly accommodated, and not all participatoryprocesses were successful. However, given the limited time available, there was arelatively good outreach to different informal trader associations, the majority of whichare by definition difficult to find. Not all informal worker organisations were included,but many were (beyond the relatively easy-to-reach ITMB and SEWU). In particular,the TTT reached out directly to worker organisations, rather than the usual patternof including NGOs who purport to speak for others. There was some participation ofcivic groups and development forums, many from the outlying areas of the city.

There was an under-representation of the interests of formal business associationsand formal trade unions. This was partly because of their reluctance to participate. Inany case, formal businesses have active channels of access to local government. Thereluctance of the trade unions to engage was probably because the informal economyis a difficult issue for organised labour to deal with (Chen et al., ). Both unionsand formal businesses are able to make their voices heard in the popular media daily,and the TTT was more concerned with the inclusion of less powerful groups.

The process was inclusive of different municipal departments, and attempted toreach further down the hierarchy than senior managers. With the benefit ofhindsight, and given the ensuing high turnover of senior officials, more junior staff

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should have been full members of the task team itself. The importance of this groupof people to the policy development and implementation process cannot beemphasised enough. There is a need for targeted support and capacity building forlower-level staff, who are likely to move up the hierarchy over time and build careerswithin local government.

Regarding our role as external advisers, we brought to the task team a solidbackground of research in institutional and organisational issues concerning theinformal economy and local government, and this had brought us into prior contactwith some of the key individuals and interest groups, inside and outside government.We also brought a commitment to advocacy for informal workers, and one of thechallenges we faced was to convince those on the task team that we would not just flythe flag for SEWU.

Centrally important to the process was the commitment of the majority of themembers of the task team, even those facing uncertain futures within the Council. Amember of the TTT was a leading influence in the Warwick Triangle UrbanRenewal Project. He was right when he commented that this policy process

should be designed to build an eventual partnership between the economic parti-cipants and the council. My experience on the streets shows that full and clearunderstanding is the only safeguard to a lasting agreement. (R. Dobson, comment onDraft Interim Document, January )

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AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to acknowledge the support of the WIEGO secretariat at HarvardUniversity (and especially international coordinator Marty Chen), and the InternationalCommission on Human Security, which enabled us to have the time, space and resourcesneeded to write up the longer monograph from which this article stems.

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