Exclusionary and livelihood-disrupting spatial reconfiguration of informal trading in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

The decongestion-driven spatial restructuring of informal trading, intended to rearrange the trading lots across the city, unintentionally propagates systemic marginalisation and disruptions to informal traders’ businesses in cities. This study utilises a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application to assess the impact of Bulawayo City’s implementation of the city decongestion strategy on informal trading. While new sites were designated to decentralise informal economic activity, their peripheral localities and low clientele bases due to low volumes of pedestrian traffic have resulted in widespread resistance, non-compliance, and a surge in illegal trading activities in the city centre. There exist profound contradictions between formalised spatial governance methods and the survivalist imperatives of economic informality in the city. The study argues that any radical strategy cities may employ involving the spatial restructuring of urban informality will have both expected and unexpected impacts, hence the need for planning with a human face in reconfiguring urban land uses amidst contestations.