On Monday and Tuesday I attended a Food Security workshop at Wits University. The intention of this workshop was to explore the issue of urban food security. In most cases when food security is mentioned people tend to think rural livelihoods and agriculture. This time we were looking at, inter alia, what people in Johannesburg eat, where and how do they prepare their food? Is this food nutritious? The bias was towards those people living in the margins of the mainstream economy,i.e., street vendors. The most interesting part of this workshop was a learning visit to Bree Street taxi rank. Before we went there, we were asked to say whatever assumptions we may have about the place. I assumed that the place will be dirty; that there will be so many people milling about; clutter of taxis, etc. Contrary to all of this, the place was clean, and well organized.
It is not clear to me how the Bree Taxi rank is run, but it appears the place is co-owned by the City of JHB and taxi associations. It is a built up structure, with stalls reserved for vendors to rent or own. We did not find it easy to gain access to the market that is situated within the rank, because an officer we met was not informed of our visit. We strategically ignored him, and decided to spread ourselves in the market, bought some produce and in the process asked the vendors the questions we wanted to ask. We were curious to find out as to where they buy their produce, or meat; how much rent do they pay; how do they handle waste; whether they are making any profit; what sort of organizational structures do they have etc.
What we observed in the place is that most vendors were selling the same produce, often with same packing and similar pricing. The produce was very fresh and cheap, if one compared to, say Pick n Pay or Shoprite. It was clear to us that some of the people in the stalls worked for others. In other words, you can buy a stall and rent it out or employ somebody to work for you. We could not dig deeper to uncover who the real owners were. Questions were however bandied about, relating to possibilities of taxi owners having a big stake in the ownership of the stalls. Other possibilities were pointed at foreigners who have good connections with South Africans. However, these were speculations.
Across the road, in the open space, vendors were selling meat prepared from open fires. It appears they were doing brisk business judging by the large numbers coming to buy. A huge serving of pap and sheep’s head cost R25, and was seen served to a group of 5 school boys. This was a big contrast to the stalls inside the rank, where there were very few people buying. We assumed that we perhaps had arrived at an off-peak period. But the vendors gave us mixed views about whether they were making any profit: others said business was bad, because street vendors were taking away their possible clients. Others said they had to diversify and sell cool drinks over and above their fruit and veges. It will be noted that the street vendors operating near the taxi rank do not pay rent, and therefore can trade at low prices. The produce or even the meat was bought in bulk from a place called City Deep. This apparently is run by big business with very close ties to established agricultural sector. Stall traders organize their own transport (often taxis), sometimes pull resources together to buy the goods.
It is not clear to me how the Bree Taxi rank is run, but it appears the place is co-owned by the City of JHB and taxi associations. It is a built up structure, with stalls reserved for vendors to rent or own. We did not find it easy to gain access to the market that is situated within the rank, because an officer we met was not informed of our visit. We strategically ignored him, and decided to spread ourselves in the market, bought some produce and in the process asked the vendors the questions we wanted to ask. We were curious to find out as to where they buy their produce, or meat; how much rent do they pay; how do they handle waste; whether they are making any profit; what sort of organizational structures do they have etc.
What we observed in the place is that most vendors were selling the same produce, often with same packing and similar pricing. The produce was very fresh and cheap, if one compared to, say Pick n Pay or Shoprite. It was clear to us that some of the people in the stalls worked for others. In other words, you can buy a stall and rent it out or employ somebody to work for you. We could not dig deeper to uncover who the real owners were. Questions were however bandied about, relating to possibilities of taxi owners having a big stake in the ownership of the stalls. Other possibilities were pointed at foreigners who have good connections with South Africans. However, these were speculations.
Across the road, in the open space, vendors were selling meat prepared from open fires. It appears they were doing brisk business judging by the large numbers coming to buy. A huge serving of pap and sheep’s head cost R25, and was seen served to a group of 5 school boys. This was a big contrast to the stalls inside the rank, where there were very few people buying. We assumed that we perhaps had arrived at an off-peak period. But the vendors gave us mixed views about whether they were making any profit: others said business was bad, because street vendors were taking away their possible clients. Others said they had to diversify and sell cool drinks over and above their fruit and veges. It will be noted that the street vendors operating near the taxi rank do not pay rent, and therefore can trade at low prices. The produce or even the meat was bought in bulk from a place called City Deep. This apparently is run by big business with very close ties to established agricultural sector. Stall traders organize their own transport (often taxis), sometimes pull resources together to buy the goods.
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