EFF sets out informal trader permit plan for Johannesburg

The EFF says informal traders in Johannesburg should be helped to move from the informal to the formal economy, with permits regularised so that bylaw enforcement is not the city’s only point of contact with them.

The position was set out in a broadcast published by eNCA, in which the party described its plan for the city’s informal sector and the taxi industry, alongside a wider argument about how Johannesburg is governed.

Under the plan, traders and other black-owned industries, including the taxi industry, would be assisted with permit regularisation. The party said the aim is to change the terms on which the city deals with people who trade in the informal sector.

The EFF also said it wants to bring what it called a new culture of negotiation to the city, using multilateral negotiating experience to get all stakeholders around the table.

On the city’s finances, the party pointed to about R10 million spent annually on the salaries of suspended employees. It said that money requires engagement with the CCMA, and that labour brokering, which the EFF said it does not support, is part of what must be addressed.

The party further said the current arrangement between the mayor and the city manager leaves the two with no authority, describing it as arm’s length governance, and that this has to change. It said the city’s entities need to be looked at.

The broadcast did not set out a timeline, a council process or a cost for the permit proposal, and the party did not say in the material how it would fund or implement the changes it described.