This report illustrates the ways in which land use management systems have intentionally (as well as unintentionally) reinforced apartheidera town planning and spatial injustice in the township instead of nurturing economic growth. The report shows how compliance with land management systems is near to impossible for micro-enterprises. For these entrepreneurs, the land-related processes which people have to navigate to obtain business compliance resembles a Kafkaesque world: one in which the rules are nightmarishly complex, incomprehensible and illogical. Partially as a result of these challenges, the great majority of township informal microenterprises do not comply with land management system requirements and gain few or no benefits. They have no alternative to trading illegally. We refer to this process as ‘enforced informalisation’. The report details evidence of the implications of ‘enforced informalisation’ on house taverns, house shops, early childhood development (ECD) centres, and street-based container businesses.