Interestingly I also want to comment on the same assertion as the 1st comment: “For example, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Durban, South Africa local governments provide licenses to street traders. This practice legitimises their status, strengthens their ties to local authorities and renders them less vulnerable to harassment. Bouazizi would have certainly benefitted from such a license.”

A license may give some legitimity to whoever owns it; but it also allows whoever does not have it to be harassed by the police, and fined, and their goods confiscated… just like what happened to Bouazizi.

Don’t you think that licencing benefits to the insider at the expense of the outsider (and the consumer)?

Thank you for drawing this to our attention. You make an important point, especially in light of the street vendors’ protests in Dar es Salaam last spring. I did not mean to imply that all street traders in Dar es Salaam are issued licenses, but I can see how my entry might lead you to draw this conclusion. It is important to bear in mind, however, that the African Economic Outlook 2012 used the examples of Dar es Salaam and Durban, where licenses for street vendors do exist, to highlight ‘best practices’ that should be more widespread and easily accessible to all informal sellers. The African Economic Outlook also stresses the importance of the licensing process, stating that it should be accompanied by the presence of strong unions and a transparent legal process with recourse to justice for victims of harassment by the police or by the administration. Please refer to the text below, taken directly from the African Economic Outlook 2012

Box 6.3. Street trading in Africa, a typical urban sales job Informal street trading accounts for a large proportion of new urban jobs in sub-Saharan Africa, the result of a combination of factors such as urbanisation, migration and economic development (Skinner, 2008). The main concerns of street traders relate to the right to a place to work and harassment by police, city officials and retail traders. Other worries have to do with the strong position of wholesale traders and access to capital. Often traders have to borrow from the wholesale traders at very high interest rates. The strengthening of organisations of street traders and their participation in urban planning are central to addressing these concerns. “Best practice” is found in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Durban (South Africa), where street traders have been issued licences to operate. Associations of street traders have established good relationships with city authorities and specific infrastructure was set up in central locations. However, many street traders are not members of any organisation. Source: Jütting and Huitfeldt (2009).

I cannot speak for Durban, but the above sentence is not true in Dar es Salaam’s case, or for many other towns in Tanzania. It is in most cases in fact the opposite. Street traders are frequently being harassed by local authorities.

You are talking about the ideal situation.