ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the role of law and litigation in state approaches towards street traders in Durban. It tracks policy shifts from the early apartheid years, through transition, to the 1990s enabling approach of Warwick Junction and the Durban Informal Economy Policy, and the post-2004 repressive pro-development agenda. The Warwick Mall legal case has established a good working relationship between the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and Asiye eTafuleni (AeT), who were increasingly seeing that litigation was one of the few routes of securing trader livelihoods. These two institutions were determined to challenge the pervasive confiscation of street trader goods but needed an individual trader willing to challenge the city. The chapter explores how traders have used litigation to fight development proposals for central market space, and to claim constitutional rights, arguing that hard-won gains must continually be defended.
