Government’s inability to enforce by-laws blamed for decay of some cities

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Local government’s inability to enforce by-laws has been blamed for the decay of some South African cities.

Several market places in some parts of Johannesburg have been vacant for over a decade, as informal traders choose to sell on the streets, rather than use government-built facilities.

This has resulted in some places becoming dens of filth and criminality.

In Dobsonville Soweto, over 140 market-stalls were built more than 10 years ago – but they are still not being used.

In most taxi ranks, informal traders find themselves jostling for space with commuters.

These informal traders say it was just a waste of money.

“They built us containers while we wanted a permanent structure with the millions spent by government. They forced us [to use] these containers and now there is no electricity and the toilets are also blocked. We have a problem because the stalls are small.”

“Even the people who are cooking, [they] won’t be able to sit in there with their customers. The problem of the stalls … they are little bit small for us. At least if we can try to open it a little bit, yes we can [be able to use them].”

Meanwhile, small businesses in the Northern Cape say they continue to face financial challenges.

They have expressed frustration over the constant load shedding which they say is not making it easy for them to efficiently run their businesses as most of them are under-resourced.

The video below is reporting more on the struggling small businesses: