Johannesburg Street Traders Halt Operation Clean Sweep

In October 2013, law enforcement officers of the City of Johannesburg forcibly evicted over 6,000 street traders from a 24-block area in the City’s central business district. This case study details how over 2,000 street traders and their organizations in inner-city Johannesburg, aided and supported by a public interest law clinic, were able to use the courts to successfully challenge their eviction from their trading sites and the consequential threat to their livelihoods.