{"id":101990,"date":"2025-11-04T12:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=101990"},"modified":"2025-11-04T12:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:48:08","slug":"city-of-joburg-ordered-to-engage-informal-traders-following-seri-court-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/city-of-joburg-ordered-to-engage-informal-traders-following-seri-court-action\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Joburg Ordered to Engage Informal Traders Following SERI Court Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a> <\/em>
\n3-minute read | 04 November 2025 | 12:40 CAT<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

\ud83d\udcf8 SERI secures court order compelling the City of Johannesburg to engage informal traders after years of forced removals and confiscations.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Johannesburg High Court has intervened in a long-standing dispute between the City of Johannesburg and informal traders, following the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) ‘s legal action over the continued unlawful removal of traders from their stalls.<\/p>\n

SERI Candidate Attorney, Matete Masola, confirmed that the organisation approached the court after weeks of forced removals in October left hundreds of informal traders without income. \u201cOur clients were being removed every day without any lawful cause,\u201d said Masola. \u201cThat left us with no option but to seek relief from the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dispute between the city and informal traders is not new. Masola recalled the 2013 Operation Clean Sweep, where over a thousand traders were removed from the Johannesburg inner city without notice. \u201cThis has been happening for years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always believed there could be a workable solution to this problem, but the city has failed to cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to SERI, despite prior engagements and a Constitutional Court order requiring dialogue between the city and traders, the municipality has allegedly failed to uphold its obligations. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried for many years to get the city to sit down and talk to us,\u201d said Masola. \u201cEven a meeting scheduled just before we launched the case was cancelled by the city at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The High Court has now ordered a two-week mediation process between the city and traders to verify and allocate trading spaces. \u201cThe verification process starts tomorrow,\u201d confirmed Masola. \u201cWe believe this outcome will not only help our clients but also assist the city in ensuring law and order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Masola further criticised the city\u2019s handling of traders\u2019 goods, claiming many had their stock confiscated without proper notice. \u201cThe city says it\u2019s enforcing bylaws, but it\u2019s not complying with its own procedures,\u201d he argued. \u201cBefore impounding someone\u2019s goods, notice must be given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to claims that traders lacked valid permits, Masola clarified that most had held permits that expired due to the city\u2019s failure to renew them since 2013. \u201cOur clients have always been willing to comply,\u201d he said. \u201cThey even pay monthly rentals to the Johannesburg Property Company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing over 500 informal traders, SERI hopes the court\u2019s order marks a turning point for fair treatment. \u201cThese are people trying to feed their families,\u201d Masola said. \u201cAll they want is to trade lawfully and with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen<\/strong> to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up<\/em><\/a> with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Matete Masola.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read | 04 November 2025 | 12:40 CAT The Johannesburg High Court has intervened in a long-standing dispute between the City of Johannesburg and informal traders, following the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) ‘s legal action over the continued unlawful removal of traders from their stalls. SERI Candidate Attorney, Matete Masola, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":101991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SERI.jpg?fit=687%2C336&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-qx0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 20:04:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}