The City’s digitised informal trading permits accrue several benefits to informal traders, including the ability to register and apply for a trading licence electronically. Once fully-fledged, the digital application system will enable a trader or anyone wishing to become a trader in the City of Johannesburg to register and apply for a trading permit remotely at their leisure, ensuring the municipality is in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Other advantages of digitising the application process, according to Herold Mbowane, Deputy Director for Informal Trading, include the timely generation of reports for the informal trading sector.

“The system serves as an information centre to send communication to traders in real time via SMS and assist in bylaw management,” Mbowane explains.

The City’s previous informal trader system was manual, could not generate and provide real-time information, and could easily be manipulated, he says.

Mbowane points out that the digital informal trading permit is consistent with the informal trading policy, which was approved by the Johannesburg City Council in April of last year.

The policy has been in the works since 2018 and was first approved by the Economic Development Section 79 Oversight Committee to be tabled at an ordinary council meeting.

The policy was later adopted by council and became a bylaw, paving the way for the City to have an organised informal trading sector.

Mbowane says the reviewed informal trading policy is inclusive of traders, property owners, and CoJ departments. 

The policy recognises that informal trading is creating employment as opposed to its earlier version, which did not see it as such. The policy is underpinned by social, spatial, communication, and economic principles and is the basis for the City’s bylaw review process.

Beneficiaries of the digital informal trading permit will now be able to register and apply anywhere at any time, and they don’t have to go to any office to register or apply for a trading permit, which will save time and money, says Mbowane.

The system is also able to provide and communicate real-time information to traders or beneficiaries. However, the personal data of all beneficiaries will always be safeguarded.

Mbowane says the new system was fully implemented following a pilot process that lasted over three months.