Browsing by Author "Petersen, Leif"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Enforced informalisation: the case of liquor retailers in South Africa
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Charman, Andrew; Petersen, Leif; Piper, Laurence
    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.
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    From local survivalism to foreign entrepreneurship: the transformation of the spaza sector in Delft, Cape Town
    (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2012) Charman, Andrew; Petersen, Leif; Piper, Laurence
    Small, home-based grocery stores, known as spaza shops, are ubiquitous throughout the township areas of urban South Africa, constituting an important business in the informal economy. In recent years, this retail market has become a site of fierce competition between South African shopkeepers and foreign entrepreneurs, especially Somalis, and is often cited in the media as one reason behind the xenophobic attacks on foreigners. Drawing on original data collected in the Delft township in the city of Cape Town, this paper demonstrates that foreign entrepreneurs, overwhelmingly Somalis, have come to own around half of the sizeable spaza market in Delft in the last five years. This increase is attributable to larger scale and price competitive behaviour as these entrepreneurs operate collectively in terms of buying shops, and stock, as well as in stock distribution. Also important are some more customer friendly services too. Compared to the more 'survivalist' local business model where individual owners look to supplement existing household income rather than generate an entire livelihood, the Somali business model has rapidly outcompeted local owners, bringing spaza prices down and forcing many locals to rent out their shop space to foreign shopkeepers. Consequently, while South African shopkeepers resent the Somali influx, most consumers appreciate the better prices and improved service. The rise of Somali shopkeepers thus represents a transformation of business practice in the spaza sector from survivalist to entrepreneurial modes
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    Implementing value chain analysis to investigate drivers and sustainability of Cape Town's informal economy of wild-harvested traditional medicine
    (Routledge, 2015) Petersen, Leif; Moll, Eugene John; Hockings, M.T.
    Despite a highly visible presence, policy-maker knowledge of the drivers and participants in the informal economy of wild-harvested medicinal plants in Cape Town remains limited. To illuminate the workings of this local cultural business activity, the researchers adopted value chain analysis (VCA) for dissecting harvesting, trading and consumer demand in the trade. The study included qualitative, openended interviews with 58 traditional healers and a quantitative consumer study of 235 township households. Cape Town’s traditional healers are numerous and potentially more uniquely culturally diverse than elsewhere, serving various community health needs. Healer groups enhance their healing reputation by utilising wild-sourced medicines – much of which is harvested locally. Their services remain culturally important and utilised by at least 50% of all consumer respondents. The VCA revealed a universal healer and consumer requirement for wild medicine stocks which has considerable implications for policy-making, protected area management and traditional medicine-oriented conservation projects.
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    Informality disallowed: State restrictions on informal traders and micro-enterprises in Browns farm, Cape Town, South Africa
    (Pan-African University Press, 2019) Piper, Laurence; Charman, Andrew; Petersen, Leif
    This chapter examines the impact of regulations and law enforcement on the economic activities of informal traders and micro-entrepreneurs in marginalised communities on the urban periphery. Our case site is Browns Farm, Philippi, a township in the City of Cape Town, South Africa, where a micro-enterprise census and business operator survey was conducted in 2011 (Charman et al, 2015). The chapter argues that despite the signi¿cant number of informal businesses in South African townships, the state continues to pursue efforts that either prevent formalisation or circumscribe informal activities. At the heart of our argument is the assertion that the informal economic practices of the urban poor constitute a ‘lived economy’ whose
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    Perspectives of wild medicine harvesters from Cape Town, South Africa
    (Academy of Science of South Africa and AOSIS, 2017) Petersen, Leif; Reid, Andrew M.; Moll, Eugene J.; Hockings, Marc T.
    Cape Town is a fast-growing cityscape in the Cape Floristic Region in South Africa with 24 formally protected conservation areas including the World Heritage Table Mountain National Park. These sites have been protected and managed as critical sites for local biodiversity, representing potentially one-third of all Cape Floristic Region flora species and 18% of South Africa’s plant diversity. Cape Town is also inhabited by a rapidly growing culturally and economically diverse citizenry with distinct and potentially conflicting perspectives on access to, and management of, local natural resources. In a qualitative study of 58 locally resident traditional healers of distinct cultural groups, we examined motivations underlying the generally illicit activity of harvesting of wild resources from Cape Town protected areas. Resource harvester motivations primarily link to local economic survival, health care and cultural links to particular resources and practices, ‘access for all’ outlooks, and wholesale profit-seeking perspectives. We describe these motivations, contrast them with the current formal, legal and institutional perspectives for biodiversity protection in the city, and propose managerial interventions that may improve sustainability of ongoing harvest activities.
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    The role of family in the township informal economy of food and drink in KwaMashu, South Africa
    (Emerald, 2018) Petersen, Leif; Charman, Andrew
    The purpose of this paper is to provide a qualitative investigation of family employment dynamics in the KwaMashu township economy. Using a small area census research method, the researchers identified 1,556 businesses located in a settlement of 2 km2 . Of these enterprises, 694 (45 percent) traded in fast moving consumer goods, notably food and/or drink. The main retailers were small shops (spaza shops) and liquor outlets (bars or shebeens), greengrocers, sellers of meat and poultry products, house shops, restaurants, takeaways and tuckshops. Firm surveys were conducted with 270 businesses in four predominant sectors: liquor retail, grocery retail, early childhood educators and hair care businesses. The research found that 40 percent of the surveyed firms in these sectors employ family members on a full-time basis, whereas merely 26 percent of firms employ family members on a part-time basis. In the grocery retail sector, about half of family employees are remunerated on a wage basis, the other half are paid in-kind (40 paper of the total) or on a profit share arrangement. In liquor retail and educare sectors, the majority of family members are paid wages. Female-run enterprises employ less family members on a full-time basis (except in the grocery sector), yet employ more family members on a part-time basis with a higher portion of wages paid in-kind. Family plays an important role in township enterprises. Beyond direct employment, township enterprises fulfill an important social protection and neighborhood relationship function for business operators and their families. The familial relationship to micro-enterprises should be seen through the lens of bricolage (Gras and Nason, 2015). In this respect, the authors confirm three benefits of family firms: the creation of social protection though family beneficiation, the provision of employment and work experience and the strategic use of family resources.
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    Submission for consideration in developing a supportive regulatory environment for the growth and trade in medicinal and recreational marijuana in South Africa
    (PLAAS, 2019-11-12) Petersen, Leif; Gaylard, Matthew
    Since 2017, three separate events have influenced the legality of cannabis in South Africa. Firstly, a licensing framework was introduced for the domestic cultivation and manufacture of medicinal cannabis by the Department of Health (2017). In September 2018 the Constitutional Court ruled that it was no longer a criminal offence for adults to use, possess or grow marijuana, and gave parliament 24 months to bring the law in alignment with this ruling - most notably, the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, but potentially impacting on a range of legislation and regulations. (At present, there is still policy uncertainty in relation to the court’s ruling with respect to what constitutes private use of marijuana). In 2019 an active ingredient of cannabis—Cannabidiol (CBD) was rescheduled (from a Schedule 7 to Schedule 4 drug) by the Minister of Health from the operation of the Schedules to the Medicines and Related Substances Act. Each of these actions represents initial steps for South Africa, alongside a growing number of countries towards decriminalising and legalising marijuana, both for recreational and medicinal purposes. The changing legal environment and increasing scientific evidence suggesting important societal, medicinal and economic benefits related to cannabis for these attributes represents potentially the single largest economic opportunity in a generation for South Africa.
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    What price cheap goods? Survivalists, informalists and competition in the township retail grocery trade
    (PLAAS, 2019-08-31) Petersen, Leif; Thorogood, Camilla; Charman, Andrew; Du Toit, Andries
    About 54% of South Africa’s township microenterprises trade in food or drink. More than two-thirds of these are grocery retail businesses in the form of spaza shops and smaller ‘house shops’. These are the predominant businesses within the ‘township economy’ and play an important role in food security, self-employment and community cohesion. In the last decade, the business of spaza shops (dedicated, signposted businesses with a range of foodstuffs and open five days per week or more) has undergone extensive change towards a new class of entrepreneurial traders – mostly foreign nationals. This change has meant that the sector has become increasingly controversial and associated with chauvinistic and xenophobic discourses targeting immigrants. While the nature, causes and extent of change in informal grocery retail markets have been noted by various authors over the past decade, there is as yet no comprehensive account of the changing nature of business dynamics and competitiveness in the sector.