Socio-Economic Survival and Service Provision: A Litmus Test of Municipal Governance in South Africa
By Musa Sebugwawo
The rate at which informal socio-economic activities in South Africa are mushrooming, calls for a refocus of debate on local government and how it responds to the people’s immediate needs. This need becomes particularly clear in light of service delivery strikes that regularly rock the country. Governance can be defined as the formation and stewardship of the rules that regulate the public realm; it is the space where the states as well as economic and societal factors interact to make decisions. According to the ECNGOC (2009), local government is “conceptualised on the premise that it is a layer of government that is closer to the people and therefore better able to deliver services that respond directly to the people’s immediate needs.” The collapse of apartheid in 1994 introduced opportunities and challenges in the transformation of the South African legacy of racial segregation. Major cities and central business districts (CBDs) in particular were previously exclusively reserved for formal business, and government establishments have since witnessed unprecedented growth in the number of informal activities.
These socio-economic activities are made up of a wide range of informal occupations including casual labourers in construction and agriculture, street vending and home work for craft industries especially by ethnic Africans, has thus become a crucial part of the post-apartheid South African local economy. Demographic studies show that migrants from other African countries have contributed to the number and teeming diversity of informal economic factors in South Africa, leading to such quips as “Africa in South Africa” (Akpan and Sebugwawo 2009).
Do Informal Activities Make Any Contribution To The Economy?
This is an important question for several reasons. Firstly, the informal sector has never been so important than it is at this juncture in post apartheid South Africa where population growth and unemployment have come face to face with declining formal sector jobs. In so much as street trading has been defined based on specific socio-economic conditions. In South Africa, street traders are popularly referred to as “oonobhalanisi”. This economic situations means that people have to come up with creative solutions to take charge of their economic life and make the ends meet.
Secondly, it is in informal socio-economic activities that one gleans the entrepreneurial energy, innovation and survival instinct that makes pavement commerce an indispensable layer of the modern South African local economy. Thirdly and connected to the first, the government’s role as the employer is on the decline, and that role itself is neither sustainable nor adequate in the fight against unemployment. In fact, recent research seems to support the conclusion that government-sponsored activities can hardly create new jobs to meet the demand. Finally, this popular, unorganised sector has become one of the most important ingredients of the Local Economic Development (LED). A growing body of research suggests that the informal economy is here to stay and in fact is expanding with modern, industrial growth (Alter Chen 2007). Studies on the urban informal economy have highlighted, among other things, the role this sector plays in absorbing labour that has been “rejected” by the formal economy.
However, beyond this positive dimension of informal socio-economic activities, there are contrasting views regarding the relevance of informal actors in South Africa that fundamentally despises those engaged in such economic activities. Informal traders are seen as harbingers of filth, chaos, disease and urban decay. In short, the opponents of informal activities declare that informal commercial activities are bad for the economy and ruin the city’s image.
This is particularly true in many local municipalities, including Buffalo City and eThekwini. As Hlongwana writes in his article “Saving the Pavement Economy”, eThekwini municipality is determined to move informal traders to pave way for the construction of the mall (Hlongwana, City Press, 19 July 2009). Condemned to aesthetic concerns, the growing population of informal economic actors cannot hope to escape the strict and usually analytical concern of urban authorities. In BCM, this negative discourse underpins the wide array of bylaws and mechanisms that seek to regulate the conduct of informal economic activities in the urban sphere, but specifically in the CBDs.
Recent research seems to support the view that street traders are major contributors to the aesthetic and environmental mess. It is argued that the “fruit and vegetable waste left behind by street traders do not only produce undesired effects resulting in most nuisance caused by the stench but rather provides a breeding ground for insects and pests thus promoting urban decay” (Ngoma et al, 2005:25).
Some benefits just come wrapped in challenges, in fact it is not just a wrapping; every challenge has its own positive side. But it takes courage and inclusive governance to look at the benefits of informal economy rather than looking for someone to blame. The analysis of the recent studies suggest that informal business activities will not only produce a better understanding of the present character of local governance, but also contribute to a better appreciation of how local communities may be involved in local economic affairs.
Conclusion
There is a dimension of socio-economic activities that needs to be amplified in the debate. The truth is, it may be easy for the ruling party to win an election, but will it also be easy to win the struggle for a better life for all? That’s the big question.
References
• Siyabonga Memela, Benjy Mautjane, Tina Nzo and Paul van Hoof (Editor), 2008. The state of local governance in South Africa: What does the local governance barometer tell us?
• Hlongwana, Saving the Pavement Economy, City Press, 19 July 2009
• Ngoma M.C, McI Ngoma M.C, McIntyre A.R, Falati A. L, Lategan G , & Chettiar K, 2005. Identify Evaluate and Monitor Environmental Health Conditions: An informal Street Trading study
The rate at which informal socio-economic activities in South Africa are mushrooming, calls for a refocus of debate on local government and how it responds to the people’s immediate needs. This need becomes particularly clear in light of service delivery strikes that regularly rock the country. Governance can be defined as the formation and stewardship of the rules that regulate the public realm; it is the space where the states as well as economic and societal factors interact to make decisions. According to the ECNGOC (2009), local government is “conceptualised on the premise that it is a layer of government that is closer to the people and therefore better able to deliver services that respond directly to the people’s immediate needs.” The collapse of apartheid in 1994 introduced opportunities and challenges in the transformation of the South African legacy of racial segregation. Major cities and central business districts (CBDs) in particular were previously exclusively reserved for formal business, and government establishments have since witnessed unprecedented growth in the number of informal activities.
These socio-economic activities are made up of a wide range of informal occupations including casual labourers in construction and agriculture, street vending and home work for craft industries especially by ethnic Africans, has thus become a crucial part of the post-apartheid South African local economy. Demographic studies show that migrants from other African countries have contributed to the number and teeming diversity of informal economic factors in South Africa, leading to such quips as “Africa in South Africa” (Akpan and Sebugwawo 2009).
Do Informal Activities Make Any Contribution To The Economy?
This is an important question for several reasons. Firstly, the informal sector has never been so important than it is at this juncture in post apartheid South Africa where population growth and unemployment have come face to face with declining formal sector jobs. In so much as street trading has been defined based on specific socio-economic conditions. In South Africa, street traders are popularly referred to as “oonobhalanisi”. This economic situations means that people have to come up with creative solutions to take charge of their economic life and make the ends meet.
Secondly, it is in informal socio-economic activities that one gleans the entrepreneurial energy, innovation and survival instinct that makes pavement commerce an indispensable layer of the modern South African local economy. Thirdly and connected to the first, the government’s role as the employer is on the decline, and that role itself is neither sustainable nor adequate in the fight against unemployment. In fact, recent research seems to support the conclusion that government-sponsored activities can hardly create new jobs to meet the demand. Finally, this popular, unorganised sector has become one of the most important ingredients of the Local Economic Development (LED). A growing body of research suggests that the informal economy is here to stay and in fact is expanding with modern, industrial growth (Alter Chen 2007). Studies on the urban informal economy have highlighted, among other things, the role this sector plays in absorbing labour that has been “rejected” by the formal economy.
However, beyond this positive dimension of informal socio-economic activities, there are contrasting views regarding the relevance of informal actors in South Africa that fundamentally despises those engaged in such economic activities. Informal traders are seen as harbingers of filth, chaos, disease and urban decay. In short, the opponents of informal activities declare that informal commercial activities are bad for the economy and ruin the city’s image.
This is particularly true in many local municipalities, including Buffalo City and eThekwini. As Hlongwana writes in his article “Saving the Pavement Economy”, eThekwini municipality is determined to move informal traders to pave way for the construction of the mall (Hlongwana, City Press, 19 July 2009). Condemned to aesthetic concerns, the growing population of informal economic actors cannot hope to escape the strict and usually analytical concern of urban authorities. In BCM, this negative discourse underpins the wide array of bylaws and mechanisms that seek to regulate the conduct of informal economic activities in the urban sphere, but specifically in the CBDs.
Recent research seems to support the view that street traders are major contributors to the aesthetic and environmental mess. It is argued that the “fruit and vegetable waste left behind by street traders do not only produce undesired effects resulting in most nuisance caused by the stench but rather provides a breeding ground for insects and pests thus promoting urban decay” (Ngoma et al, 2005:25).
Some benefits just come wrapped in challenges, in fact it is not just a wrapping; every challenge has its own positive side. But it takes courage and inclusive governance to look at the benefits of informal economy rather than looking for someone to blame. The analysis of the recent studies suggest that informal business activities will not only produce a better understanding of the present character of local governance, but also contribute to a better appreciation of how local communities may be involved in local economic affairs.
Conclusion
There is a dimension of socio-economic activities that needs to be amplified in the debate. The truth is, it may be easy for the ruling party to win an election, but will it also be easy to win the struggle for a better life for all? That’s the big question.
References
• Siyabonga Memela, Benjy Mautjane, Tina Nzo and Paul van Hoof (Editor), 2008. The state of local governance in South Africa: What does the local governance barometer tell us?
• Hlongwana, Saving the Pavement Economy, City Press, 19 July 2009
• Ngoma M.C, McI Ngoma M.C, McIntyre A.R, Falati A. L, Lategan G , & Chettiar K, 2005. Identify Evaluate and Monitor Environmental Health Conditions: An informal Street Trading study