SPATIAL JUSTICE
Township land-use systems hinder access to enterprise formalisation
Business recognition provides incentives to certain kinds of entrepreneurs such as street and liquor traders
Imagine running a small business in a township. You would face many obstacles to achieving business growth, including constraints that are common to most start-ups, such as an absence of affordable finance, market competition from established and larger businesses, external risks including crime and high regulatory barriers. But unlike start-ups in the formal economy, township businesses have to confront a particularly onerous set of land barriers. Their challenge can best be described through a simple example. Steve operates a spaza shop, take-away and off-licence. He is a real person, running a real business somewhere in Gauteng. He ought to have a licence from the municipality to sell perishable food, and another licence to certify that his equipment for serving take-away food complies with environmental health and safety standards to minimise the possibilities of the transmission of diseases such as listeria. Then he should have a licence for selling liquor. He has none of these...
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