Loopholes in the informal sector

SURVEY: MOST OWNERS 'HAVE NO PERMITS OR LICENCES'

- Ina Opperman

Most of the 1.9 million informal businesses in South Africa are run without the owners having a permit or licence, while just more than half of them are run by people who did not complete matric.

According to Statistics SA's Survey of Employers and the Self-employed 2023, the total number of people who ran informal businesses declined from 2.3 million in 2001, to 1.1 million in 2009, before increasing to 1.8 million in 2017, and to 1.9 million in 2023.

Findings from 2023 show that roughly 98.4% of informal business owners had only one business and the majority of them have been operating the business for more than a year, but not more than three years (22.5%).

The second-largest percentage was recorded among people who have been running their businesses for more than 10 years (22.4%). Gauteng (28.9%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (16.8%) and Limpopo (15.8%) had the highest share of informal businesses in 2023.