Governing street trading in post-apartheid Cape Town: neo-colonial or neo-liberal order?

This article addresses the issue of the temporalities of public action in Cape Town, using the example of the governing of street trading since the early twentieth century. Our main argument lies in a discussion of the current understanding of the governance of street trading as a product of a neo-liberal regime reproducing the colonial order. Using the genealogical method of Foucault and his conceptualisation of neo-liberalism as a rationality of government, we show that although the instruments of control may remain the same (limitation of permits, spatial zoning and identification of traders), their political meaning has changed over time, reflecting a shift from coercion and repression to neo-liberal governmentality. We demonstrate empirically how neo-liberalisation operates through a transformation of the very rationality of these instruments. We conclude by emphasising that using Foucault’s definition of neo-liberalisation and method helps to build a theory of neo-liberal change for post-colonial contexts.