By Palesa Matlala
- Aaron Chirwa is one of dozens of Kerk Street traders in Johannesburg waiting for a trading permit from the city.
- Traders submitted more than 3,000 permit applications to Johannesburg after the Gauteng High Court ordered the city to act faster.
Aaron Chirwa has been selling fruit and vegetables at the Kerk Street market in Johannesburg’s CBD since 2010. He still has no permit to trade legally.
Chirwa, who migrated from Malawi, buys his produce at City Deep and sells it for between R5 and R25. He makes a profit of 100%.
“Johannesburg is a city that never sleeps. I set up by 7:30am for those who are going to work and school,” Chirwa said.
Chirwa said he has never had trouble with crime in the CBD. “The government is the one preventing me from earning an honest living,” he said.
He is one of dozens of traders at Kerk Street waiting for permits from the City of Johannesburg. Some traders have received smart card permits but have not been given legal trading bays.
Traders marched to Mayor Dada Morero’s offices in Braamfontein in February 2026, handing over a memorandum calling for the urgent processing of permits. Chirwa lost about R3,000 in income on the day of the march.
Morero said the city has not received a verified list of traders, making it “difficult to determine the full extent of non-compliance.”
More than 3,000 trading applications have been submitted since November 2025, following a Gauteng High Court ruling. The court ordered the municipality to speed up verification, registration and allocation of trading spaces.
Chirwa said: “I am worried that we will be harassed by law enforcement and some of them will extort us for money.”
Pictured above: Informal trade at a Johannesburg CBD street market.
Image source: Palesa Matlala
