The impact of street trading on the economic development in the city of Polokwane, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Socio-economic changes in the City of Polokwane have compelled many unemployed people to start street trading. Street trading is fraught with many challenges, such as lack of transportation, physical infrastructure, and access for funding, change of local municipality by-laws, lack of support and other related economic development issues. This study is concerned with the factors that hamper the development of street trading, economic growth and development in the City of Polokwane. The study tried to develop effective strategies that will enhance the capacity of street traders and change the perception of stakeholders to support street trading. In this study, a mixed research design was used to investigate the impact of street trading towards economic development in the area of the study. This study also used context-focus of the City of Polokwane as its springboard in engaging in this sometime daunting subject. Surely, with all the changes in the current socio- economic development, there is a need to review the impact of street trading towards economic development in the City of Polokwane. As stipulated in the study, the City of Polokwane should invest in training to enhance street traders` effectiveness so as to have an impact on the economic development in the city. To accelerate this process, the stakeholders should be encouraged to support street traders so as to improve the status of economic growth in the area.