Food insecurity in South Africa is not due to a shortage of food in the country but to inadequate access
to food by poor groups of individuals and households. Many people, who lost their jobs due to
retrenchments or can’t find suitable jobs for various reasons, revert to street trading or other activities of
the informal economy as a survival strategy. There is limited information on understanding the food
security status and strategies used by street traders and their households in Durban. This study aims to
understand the extent of food insecurity among street traders in terms of their access to food, the
quality of food consumed and the strategies they used to cope with food shortage.
A mixed research method composed of a survey, face to face interviews and observations were
conducted with a sample population of 120. The findings of this study confirmed that the sector was
dominated by semi-literate people who generated R2000 per month which was to be shared with an
average of 4 members of their respective households. Consequently, the majority of street traders’
households lived below the poverty line, thus food insecure.
Limited income compromised the quality of food consumed: energy dense food dominated their food;
hence 59.2% suffered from communicable lifestyle diseases. The study recommended more studies in
this field, the extension of the Isipingo census to the entire municipality and the decriminalization of
street trading by the municipality in order to improve the food security situation of street traders.