Recently, officials from the Economic Development and Spatial Planning Department conducted an oversight visit to the Marabastad Informal Trading Stalls to assess progress on the Phase 2 construction of the project.
For the 2022/23 financial year, my department granted an approved budget of R7 million for infrastructure development to support informal traders with a dedicated trading zone, enhance compliance and support the sector’s growth.
The project comprises building a restaurant, a meat-chopping plant and stalls for tomato and meat vendors. After the budget was approved, the Economic Development and Spatial Planning Department held discussions with the affected businesses and the organisations that represent them in order to finalise the project plans.
The project site was handed over to the appointed contractor on 6 December 2022. As MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning, I am pleased to announce that the project is progressing well at 48% completion. Through this project we have been able to support local businesses as over 30% of the budget is subcontracted to local service providers and about 26 Expanded Public Works Programme job opportunities were created.
It is estimated that the construction will be completed and handed over to the City of Tshwane by the end of May 2023, and the stalls will be handed over to the informal traders on 1 July 2023.