Deracialisation of urban business space: street traders in Pietersburg

The 'invasion' of the CBD by informal entrepreneurs signalled the first visible phase of the informal process of deracialisation of business space. A clear distinction between deracialisation and desegregation processes relating to urban residential space has been made by Saff (1994). This paper will apply this distinction to business space, using the secondary city of Pietersburg as a case study of two manifestations of policy concerning business space: processes of urban race-space restructuring and street trading as an example of the deracialisation process of urban development within the context of the response of the restructured democratic local authority.