The struggle for the streets: Deregulation and hawking in South Africa's major urban areas

Until the 1980s hawkers in South African urban areas were subject to a wellentrenched tradition of repression and persecution. A changing dispensation towards the informal sector is crystallizing as part of the State’s urban reform initiatives. This study investigates current issues surrounding the deregulation of street trading in five major South African cities, viz., Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria. Considerable geographical variations emerge in the strategies and extent of deregulation between these centres. The findings on hawker deregulation illustrate the important limits which may be imposed on urban reform policies by the local State in South Africa.