Rowan Callaghan
The informal sector provides jobs for almost two million people, according to research by Unisa’s Bureau of Market Research (BMR).
The BMR study found that last year almost 1,6-million, or around 15 percent, of the total South African work force was employed in the informal sector.
This sector contributed an estimated R26-billion, or around seven percent of the official gross domestic product (GDP) figure, the total value of all goods and services produced by the economy.
Activities in this sector are concentrated in trade (48 percent)and community and personal services (17 percent), with contributions from transport (12 percent), construction (10 percent) and manufacturing ( seven percent).
In the traditionally black areas of Gauteng like Soweto, Tembisa, Kagiso, and Mamelodi the research found that of the almost R16-billion spent at retail outlets, 28 percent went to the informal sector.