Ten Years for Unlicensed Hawking
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has unveiled plans to restrict hawking which go far beyond anything the National Party government did in its efforts to control black business, says the South African Institute of Race Relations (the Institute) in a submission made to the DTI last week.
Under the Licensing of Businesses Bill of 2013 (the Bill), gazetted in March 2013 for public comment, hawkers will in future have to obtain licences to ply their trade. Those that breach this obligation will be liable to (unspecified) fines and/or imprisonment for up to ten years.
These are extraordinary penalties even to consider laying down for people whose sole offence might be to sell a few home--‐grown vegetables by the side of the road. The Bill also seeks to repeal an apartheid-era law (the Business Act of 1991) that removed earlier restrictions on black business and expressly provided that hawkers need not obtain permits save in limited circumstances.
The Bill reverses this by reintroducing a blanket system of licensing for hawkers. Says Lawrence Mavundla, outgoing president of the National African Federated Congress of Commerce & Industry (Nafcoc): ‘The return of licensing will be apartheid in another name.' The DTI counters that hawkers might be able to take advantage of exemptions for authorised zones where hawking will be allowed without individual permits.
"However, there is no guarantee that such exemptions will be issued, or that they will cover all the people who might need them. In addition, hawkers will not want to be restricted to such zones," notes the Institute's Head of Special Research, Dr Anthea Jeffery.