Double Informality and Labour Precarity: The Invisible Workforce in South Africa’s Street Vending Economy

Abstract

This paper examines the underexplored phenomenon of “double informality” within the informal economy of rural and semi-rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. While street vending is widely acknowledged as a key livelihood strategy, limited attention has been paid to the hidden layer of labour within this sector shopkeepers or assistants employed by informal traders. Drawing on the Structuralist Framework, the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, and Location Theory, the study interrogates the lived experiences and entrenched precarity of these workers, whose employment status remains largely invisible in policy discourse and absent from formal labour statistics. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study utilised semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and non-participant observations across the KwaDukuza, uMsunduzi, and eThekwini municipalities. Thematic analysis reveals that shopkeepers exist within a context of compounded vulnerability characterised by the absence of formal employment arrangements, reliance on unstable verbal agreements, and dependence on interpersonal trust. Their working conditions are marked by low and irregular earnings, often contingent on fluctuating daily sales, extended working hours, and exclusion from social protection mechanisms and occupational benefits. The findings further highlight a state of institutional voicelessness, wherein shopkeepers lack access to grievance procedures, labour protections, and occupational health and safety frameworks. Although some workers acquire basic business and entrepreneurial skills, significant structural constraints limit opportunities for upward mobility, reinforcing their position within cycles of economic insecurity. Consequently, many perceive their roles as temporary survival strategies rather than sustainable livelihood pathways. The study argues that addressing the precarity associated with “double informality” requires a fundamental reorientation of municipal and policy approaches from predominantly punitive and regulatory frameworks toward inclusive, participatory models that recognise informal assistants as critical, yet highly vulnerable, economic actors. By foregrounding this overlooked category of workers, the paper contributes to broader debates on informal labour, structural exclusion, and equitable policy reform in South Africa.