ABSTRACT
The majority of people in the "informal" settlements burgeoning around the major cities, as well as most people engaged in petty commodity production, are so-called illegal immigrants. Petty commodity production and trading becomes an outlet for all sections of the working class during periods of unemployment, ill health or severe financial strain and is used by many as a means sometimes on a permanent basis, sometimes intermittently of supplementing household income. The kind of activity under consideration here, and subsumed under the heading 'petty commodity production and trading', is that most generally known as the informal sector. There are significant differences between it and Crossroads, which, it was considered, might have an impact on the operation of petty commodity production and trading. The study carried out in Cape Town indicates that there are three primary areas in which action is necessary to allow the most vulnerable forms of petty commodity production and trading to operate.
