Investigating African migrant informal enterprises in Umhlathuze municipality nature extent and policy response

This study investigates African migrant informal enterprises in uMhlathuze Local Municipality. The study adopted a post-positivist research paradigm which allowed for the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The participants were sampled using purposive and snowball techniques to get to the sample size of 54 participants. The participants included 50 African migrant informal traders and 4 municipal officials. The instruments used for the data collection included interviews and Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine the location of the African migrant informal enterprises. The findings of the study reveal that the majority of African migrants migrate to South Africa for economic reasons, such as the search for employment, which has not materialised, forcing them to engage in the informal sector. These informal enterprises are located mainly on sidewalks, close to malls, transportation hubs and markets. The study further found that migrant informal entrepreneurs have created employment opportunities for many local people, which in the process addresses unemployment in uMhlathuze. The study found that there are policies in place that attempt to manage informality within the municipality. However, these are limited to those who were able to provide documentation in order to get trading permits, which effectively means that the policy has many gaps, in terms of adequately addressing informality in general and African migrant informal enterprises in particular.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Zululand

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Makkhathini, Mandisa Sunshine Malanie

• African migrants
• Unemployment
• informal enterprise

Licence

• https://devspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/2dc87973-b8cc-4c64-bab5-70793e10fce0/download