sexual orientation or greed. Despite this constitutional provision barring different forms of discrimination, unless there is a justifiable cause based in accordance with the provisions of section 36 of the Constitution, different forms of discrimination still continue. Since the dawn of democracy, many people moved into the inner-city. This necessitated most cities to introduce measures to control the use of urban space. The informal traders are inevitably affected by these regulatory measures, as they either stipulate when, where and how they should trade in the city. At times the areas demarcated for trading purposes is not suitable to them. This became clear in South African Informal Traders Forum v City of Johannesburg, in this matter, the officers of the metro police forcibly evicted the informal traders from their trading stalls and confiscated their merchandise.
The city has granted to some informal traders written permission to operate in a manner consistent with its bylaws read with its trading policy. Most have traded there for many years, some for about 20 years. However, the City introduced ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ aimed at getting rid of unsightly and disorderly trading areas. These, it alleged, gave rise to disorderliness, criminality and obstruction of citizens’ rights to appropriate utilisation and enjoyment of facilities in and around trading areas. Essentially, the argument (thought not specifically enunciated by the City) was to the effect that the informal traders impede other city inhabitants’ right to the city. The City, conceded, that it went about to achieve its objectives in flagrant disregard of the traders’ rights. The city did not that any of the traders in the two applications were trading illegally.

The mass eviction was carried out by the City without taking any measures to distinguish between the traders who have always been doing business legally, and other informal traders who have not. Faced with indiscriminate evictions, the informal traders negotiated with the City to allow them to return to their lawful trading activities. Despite the informal traders complying with the verification process suggested by the City, they were not permitted to return to their stalls and to trade. Those who did so were forcibly evicted by the metro police, who also dismantled the stalls previously used by the traders. They say it became increasingly clear to them that OCS was not an attempt to verify and reregister the lawful informal traders in the inner city. Instead, it was a project to remove informal traders permanently from their trading booths and relocate some or all of them to unknown ‘altern