SERI drags City of Joburg to court over informal traders’ removal

The Socio-Economic Right Institute of South Africa (SERI) is taking the City of Johannesburg to court over the removal of informal traders in parts of the city.

In recent weeks, the municipality has implemented its clean-up and by-law enforcement programme as part of reclaiming the city.

The initiative has also seen City officials embarking on a new registration system aimed at regulating the more than 20 000 informal traders.

This involves the removal of unregistered informal traders operating without authorisation and outside designated areas.

However, SERI’s Edward Molopi says the traders believe that their rights are violated.

“This has, of course, been going on for a couple of weeks now, and so they approached us with a request to represent them in taking the matter to court because they believe their rights have been infringed and their ability to earn an income has been affected. They have asked us to represent them in the matter, and the case is now before the high court.”

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