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This paper investigates the effect of foreign ownership on firm performance in the South African informal sector. Using the data of 1097 informal businesses sourced from the World Bank Enterprises Survey conducted in four Township provinces in South Africa (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape) in 2020, the paper aims to address two issues: what is the effect of foreign ownership on performance in the South African informal sector and what factors drive foreign-ownership gap in the South African informal sector if it exists? The empirical analysis uses the multivariable decomposition technique and finds a performance gap between locally and foreign-owned businesses in the South African informal sector. A decomposition of factors shows that differences in endowments can explain the bulk of the gap. Discriminatory/unexplained factors, likely capturing the business culture, also play a significant role. Caution is given when seeking to curb foreign business participation in the informalsector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis has been one of the most significant events in recent history. Informal traders who depend on a thriving tourist market have been especially vulnerable to COVID-19. The resultant travel bans affected South Africa's tourism-related informal economic activities. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the pandemic on informal traders' livelihoods and resilience in Cape Town, South Africa. Tourists have always constituted a large proportion of informal traders' customer base. They are often willing and able to spend more than locals. The impact of travel bans on traders' income, profit margins, and livelihoods has been disastrous. However, many traders have shown commendable resilience. There were obviously limits to the effectiveness of their mitigating strategies. There is an urgent need (from a social justice and a pure economic perspective) for further relief and assistance to supplement street traders' efforts to survive as international tourism recovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the conceptualisation of gender mainstreaming by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its member state Botswana, and the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance. Critical discourse analysis based on Norman Fairclough's work is used to find out how gender mainstreaming has been conceptualised to take into account the informal sector of Botswana. The findings of the study show that gender mainstreaming is limited by structural barriers of transforming unequal gender relations, and limited coordination between government institutions, the Botswana Informal Sector Association and the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance. The paper suggests that for gender mainstreaming to be effective, it requires a clear understanding on how various policies define gender problems and shape gender relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the barriers and challenges for decent job creation along the value chain of plastic recycling that street waste pickers (SWPs) face in the urban regions of Cape Town with a mixed method research design. The findings from the descriptive case study's primary survey data indicated that the informal recycling economy in these regions has little to no barriers of entry. Initiatives to absorb individuals into this economy could potentially help decrease the unemployment level of unskilled and lowly educated people. On average, SWPs earn about R155 for a day's waste and R632 for a week's waste. The econometric results revealed that SWPs from the coloured population group who do not have access to trolleys yield statistically significantly lower earnings. Assisting SWPs through the provision of trolleys and protective gear could potentially be an advantage to sustain their income and create decent employment opportunities for SWPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cash transfers primarily support beneficiaries' consumption of goods for basic needs, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that they can promote livelihood activities. Yet there has been limited understanding of the gender-related challenges of female beneficiaries who participate in such livelihood activities. This paper presents findings from an exploratory qualitative study conducted in a poor urban community of Johannesburg. Giddens's structuration theory provides an analytical lens to understand the gender-related challenges and responses of female beneficiaries in conducting livelihood activities. The findings show that even though female and male beneficiaries were found to engage in the same income-generating activities, the former were confronted with gender-related challenges that limit their economic progress. This study contributes to understanding the gender-related challenges and dynamics of female operators in the informal economy, who are overrepresented among those impoverished by COVID-19 pandemic and as such need special attention and effective economic support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the informal economy is enhancing urban sustainability in the context of global South urbanism. It uses evidence collected through ethnographic methods from Norton – a small Zimbabwean town to demonstrate how the informal economy is driving sustainable urbanism in its small ways in the absence of a functional formal economy in the town. While it acknowledges sustainable concerns around informal urbanisation, the paper argues that the sector can be an asset that can be harnessed to advance the sustainable urbanisation agenda. The study argues that some of the sector's activities are playing a big role in; natural environment stewardship, skills development, promotion of social cohesion, indigenous knowledge systems and Ubuntu as well as contributing towards economic development. The paper argues for city and national governments to put more efforts to harness these seemingly small contributions in the quest to build more sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine how car guarding remains a sustainable means of livelihood in the informal sector. The study interviewed 30 car guards at six different locations in Durban, South Africa. It examined their demographic characteristics, income, education and skills, among other factors. Furthermore, it compares the findings from 2019 with the 2015 findings from Foster and Chasomeris (2017, Examining car guarding as a livelihood in the informal sector. Local Economy 32(6), 525–538. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094217727990). The findings show deterioration in the real income levels and livelihoods. In 2015, 22 car guards earned above a domestic worker's minimum hourly wage of ZAR15, compared to 16 car guards in 2019 and, only eight above the national minimum wage of ZAR20 per hour. There is a notable decline in expenditure on accommodation and reduced optimism about their future. Car guards still display a level of entrepreneurship, especially where daily bay fees are not paid to car guarding agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa lags behind among other developing and emerging market economies on business start-ups. Businesses that fail in a year is averaging between 50% and 60%, a figure quite high for a country struggling with achieving sustainable economic growth to reduce unemployment, inequality and poverty. This study identifies issues hurting SMMEs that need attention from both businesses themselves as well as from policymakers. The objective of this study is to identify key business success determinants using cross-sectional data that was randomly collected from informal businesses in Johannesburg/Pretoria in South Africa from 390 informal SMMEs. Using assets ownership as a yardstick for success in an ordered logistic regression, the study finds education status, income, employment growth, centre of operation, financial inclusion, experience, financial literacy and advertising budget were significant in explaining assets ownership (success) in South Africa. This study recommends that the government through its various institutions that deal specifically with small businesses come up with radical business training programmes so as to improve the finance literacy among small business. Also, small business owners should budget to fund their advertising budgets since it is found that advertising has a positive impact of firm success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that the limitations of neoliberal politics and economic globalisation have contributed to feminisation of poverty in Global South countries. The implementation of cooperatives has played a visible role in localising the economy and addressing poverty amongst women. This paper attempts to advance empirical evidence in the field of social development and feminisation of poverty. Using qualitative methodology, I present evidence from eight women who were involved in a sewing cooperative in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. Underscored by the sustainable livelihood approach, this article presents three interconnected themes: human capital development, building social capital and striving for economic capital. Ultimately this cooperative project presents a positive social development strategy that community development practitioners can embrace to assist women to work towards sustainability of their livelihood activities in the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training and skills acquisition have received widespread approval as one of the most important steps towards achieving human, organisational and national development. They are largely regarded as tools to fight poverty, inequality and unemployment. In Zimbabwe, the post-independence government has been heavily investing in formal training: primary, secondary and tertiary education. However, despite the critical role that formal training plays, we discovered that the informal economy is also playing an equally important part in providing skills especially to the disadvantaged groups of society. We use data collected from Norton and Harare to demonstrate the importance of informal sector training in building skills. We also identify lack of recognition as one of the challenges that informal training programmes encounter. We conclude by arguing for the introduction of skills assessment and standardisation initiatives to improve the quality of the skills and products generated from the sector to boost its recognition and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is rapidly urbanising and urban food systems are being transformed. Some have argued that this transformation is driven by a supermarket revolution akin to that in North America, Europe and Latin America. Others suggest that the supermarket revolution model oversimplifies complex African realities and that urban food systems are experiencing uneven supermarket penetration in the face of resilient informal food sectors. This paper focuses on Windhoek, Namibia, showing that the city's food system is dominated by South African and local supermarket chains. Since the end of apartheid, South African supermarket chains have expanded their operations into Namibia. Supermarket domination of Windhoek's urban food system is a function of proximity of South Africa and integration into South African supply chains. In other African countries, supermarket penetration has been much slower and is even being reversed. Explanations for uneven penetration in different countries require greater contextualisation and more case study research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing pool of evidence showing that cash transfers can promote livelihood activities. Yet there has been limited empirical studies that explore how financial support influences beneficiaries' decision-making in the construction and operation of livelihood activities in an urban context. This study presents findings from qualitative research conducted in a poor urban community in South Africa. Structuration theory provides an analytical tool to understand how cash transfers enable decision-making of beneficiaries in livelihood activities. The study finds that beneficiaries make different types of initial and ongoing decisions to improve their socio-economic condition. Among the contributions of this paper is that it counters the cynicism that is usually attached to cash transfers. The study's implications include the incorporation of both social and economic goals in the design of social protection policies as well as the need for greater recognition of the role of the informal economy in eradicating poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2016 Ghana has introduced several initiatives to formalise parts of the e-waste economy. This e-waste management system is based on the experiences, expert policy advice and partial funding from the Global North. Employing serial interviewing, we assess the rolling out of this formalisation pathway, the evolving e-waste management landscape and reflect on informal terrain's reconstitution and remaining barriers, such as inadequate funding, low levels of awareness about informal e-waste management among policymakers and the general populace and inadequate training programmes to equip informal operators with technology. Several formal/informal economy overlaps are now visible in a 'gray space.' Some low-skilled e-waste work, ancillary collection services and workplaces are being upgraded and integrated but informal infrastructure remains very deficient. Downgrading of some e-waste work is taking place. Fragmentation of the main hub is occurring as rival informal operations continue in various locations, and new small ventures are emerging in peripheral locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has triggered a burst of international scholarship concerning the reshaping of tourism and the resetting of tourism research agendas. The aim of this paper is to tease out some implications for re-orienting the African tourism research agenda from 2020 and beyond. Arguably, an appropriate African research response to COVID-19 in the context of tourism must embrace a genuine transdisciplinary approach and draw in researchers who would not, historically, have operated in the tourism space. Seven key themes are discussed namely, market confidence; dependence on international long-haul tourists; supporting regional and domestic tourism especially VFR travel; redefining community-based tourism; informal sector resilience; climate change; and, addressing present-mindedness in African tourism scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working poverty exists worldwide and has shown an increase in prevalence over the past few decades. Over the years, there has been an increase in the number and severity of low-wage employment, which in turn contributes significantly to poverty. Whilst paid employment has generally been considered as the predominant means to survive financially, salaries may be too low to maintain reasonable living standards. South African research on low-wage employment and working poverty in particular, are rare. Using data from the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study, this study fills the existing research gap by examining low-wage employment, working poverty, and low-wage poverty. The empirical findings indicated that all three groups are predominantly lowly-educated, middle-aged African female employees involved in elementary occupations in the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the labour market linkages between the informal and formal sectors, using the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study data. The main focus is on three groups of employed: worked in the formal sector in all waves; worked in the informal sector in all waves; moved between the two sectors across the waves. Only 27% of informal sector workers in wave 1 transitioned to the formal sector in wave 4; 38% remained in the informal sector while 33% had their status changed to either inactive or unemployed. The econometric analysis indicates that older and more educated individuals living in urban areas and coming from households with fewer old-age grant recipients are significantly more likely to work in the formal sector, whereas more educated white males are associated with a significantly greater likelihood of transitioning from informal to formal sector employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the structural transformation trajectory in Zambia since independence. Drawing from sectoral analysis of the structure of output and the composition of labour over the last five decades, the article illustrates that although there have been shifts in the composition of output and labour in the economy, especially since 2000, these shifts have not contributed to positive structural transformation. Instead the economy has been experiencing widening productivity gaps between sectors, signalling perverse economic structural transformation. Although there have been some slight improvements in the overall productivity since 2000, productivity in the agriculture and informal sectors, where almost 85% of the labour works, has remained stagnantly low. This is compounded by the economy experiencing a net movement of labour from high to low-productivity employment, mainly the informal urban sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important component of the informal economy in South Africa, the Spaza sector is portrayed as dominated by foreign nationals who outcompete South African shopkeepers on price. Indeed, this business competition from foreign nationals is a key reason given to explain xenophobia in South Africa. This article sets out to interrogate this widely held assumption. Drawing on evidence from over 1000 Spaza shops from South Africa’s three main cities, the article makes the case that business competitiveness does not correspond with ‘foreign’ or South African identities in a simple way. Firstly, while citizenship or nationality is a factor, it is not captured by the labels of ‘foreign’ versus South African, as there are significant differences by nationality within the ‘foreign’. Secondly, not all foreign nationalities out-compete South Africans on price. Thirdly, place matters too, not only because we find different nationalities in different cities, but also because there are different patterns of price competition by nationality in each place. Lastly, there are product-specific dynamics that impact on price more profoundly than nationality. For example, regardless of nationality, milk is cheaper in Cape Town and bread is cheaper in Johannesburg. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After a decade of unsuccessful efforts to migrate informal businesses to South Africa's formal economy there remains little understanding of the dynamics in this sector, especially as regards micro-enterprises. International literature discusses ‘exit’ and ‘exclusion’, holding that poor law enforcement is the reason for the persistence and growth of the informal economy. Through examining the informal liquor retail (shebeen) sector, we demonstrate that enforcement actually produces informality in this sector. Illustrated with examples from one of our sites in Delft South, Cape Town, the article describes key aspects of shebeen business practice, including the responses to greater law enforcement. Notably, instead of closing shop or facing the hurdles of compliance, the great majority of shebeens continue to evade the law by downscaling their activities. This finding has implications not just for liquor policy in South Africa, but for understanding both theories of formalisation and theories of the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explored entrepreneurial values in Johannesburg's informal sector. Using responses to open-ended questions in a survey of 359 informal traders, the author analysed the way Western and indigenous (African) values mix to form hybrid values. The resulting understanding of hybridity makes it apparent that these traders exhibit both kinds of value in varying forms. In this paper the implications of the emergence of hybrid values, as a form of entrepreneurial capital, are explored using Bourdieu's notion of embodied capital. On this basis it is proposed that hybrid values are of material benefit to traders through conversion into other forms of capital, such as financial capital. More research is required, however, to investigate further how hybrid values translate into material gain in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited consensus on how to define informal employment in South Africa, but in the South African and international literature the three most common ways of capturing informal employment are the enterprise, employment relationship and worker characteristics approaches. This paper reviews the methods used by Statistics South Africa to measure informal employment before and after the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and other recently proposed methods. It then investigates the congruence, if any, between five measures of informality used in 2009. It finds that 94.7% of the self-employed are informal according to at least one definition, but only 62.6% according to all five combined. In addition, these two proportions are only 67.7% and 6.9% respectively in the case of informal employees. Econometric analysis is conducted to further investigate the differences between these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines conflict and cooperation between South Africans and Somali spaza shop owners in townships and informal settlements in the context of post-apartheid structural inequities. I argue that Somali and other poor newcomers suffer the same daily insecurity as the majority of the population. However, with the exception of the concerted killings, lootings and displacement of migrants in 2008–2009, this Somali case shows that contact between newcomers and local people is not always antagonistic and that newcomers are not passive victims of violence, but rather engage successfully in both competition and collaboration to cement their presence in these areas. I conclude that violence against migrants is rooted in South Africa's continuing structural violence and communal crisis, a condition characterised by tensions with compatriots as well as with newcomers. To solve the problem, attention must be paid to the persistence of this structural violence in the post-apartheid political dispensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of access to formal bank credit is one of the important problems faced by South African micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector. Although the government has addressed this issue, private banks are still not interested in serving micro-enterprises. This article presents an analysis of the policies implemented by the government, as well as policies followed in other countries, to reach a conclusion with regard to the path to follow for solving this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]