Unpacking Bellville’s Informal Food Market: A Hub for Urban Resilience and Food Security

Bellville’s vibrant informal food market showcases its vital role in South Africa’s informal economy as we, presented by the Greater Tygerberg Partnership, explore traders’ challenges and innovative solutions like trading prototypes to create a scalable urban trading model.

Presented by the Greater Tygerberg Partnership

Episode Guests
Rirhandzu Marivate, Programs Manager at the South African Urban Food and Farming Trust
Jacqui Samson, professional planner and owner of J Samson Consultancy.

Episode Summary

The episode highlights Bellville as Cape Town’s second-largest CBD and a major transport interchange, attracting over 90,000 daily commuters. This bustling hub fosters a vibrant informal food trading system that provides accessible, culturally diverse food options, enhancing food security for residents and commuters.

The market’s informal traders form a symbiotic relationship with the formal retail sector, creating a dynamic supply-and-demand network that supports local businesses and commuters alike. Key challenges for traders include inadequate infrastructure (e.g., lack of storage, electricity, and sanitation), safety concerns, and cumbersome permitting processes.

The AfriFoodLinks project, in collaboration with the Greater Tygerberg Partnership, is addressing these through innovative solutions like prototyping food vending structures, improving waste management with black soldier fly facilities, and introducing capacity-building programs for food safety compliance. These initiatives aim to create dignified, hygienic, and sustainable trading environments.

The discussion also covers urban planning’s role in integrating innovations like cashless systems, mobile trading structures, and enhanced waste management to support traders. The Greater Tygerberg Partnership’s market management model and sustainability efforts, such as organic waste processing for composting, aim to empower traders to adopt greener practices. Co-design with vendors ensures these solutions are contextually appropriate, fostering trust and community ownership.

The episode concludes with reflections on the informal economy’s social ecosystem, where traders operate with a “social license” despite regulatory challenges. The Greater Tygerberg Partnership’s goal to become a knowledge hub offers a scalable model for supporting informal traders across South African cities, emphasising technology (e.g., e-services, AI, and Wi-Fi access) and stakeholder collaboration to enhance business operations and urban resilience.