No hawking

This sign forbidding street vendors and informal markets has been erected close to where I’m staying. In a country like South Africa where so many live on or below the breadline, I don’t accept that over-regulating where people can sell brings benefits. I imagine it is done primarily for superficial reasons of orderliness, when the priority should be for people to be earning income however they can legitimately do it, especially if sellers could come to wealthier areas where there is purchasing power. More than anything else I fear it reveals an ugly distaste for the poor.