Informal sector takes on the might of big business

FROM car washes, vegetable and braaied meat stalls and shoe repairs to traditional medicines, township economies have survived the pandemic but face stiff competition from shopping malls in the area.

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released in March by Statistics South Africa showed the unemployment rate was at 28% and the expanded unemployment rate at 30.4% in the Western Cape.

Masixole Dasa, 39, from Gugulethu, said he sold traditional medicines that were difficult to find.

“I find trees with healing properties around Cape Town and I ask people who go to the rural areas to bring certain trees parts to treat many diseases,” he said.

Zikhona Ntsangane from Queenstown started selling fruit and vegetables outside the Gugulethu mall five years ago.

She said she built her business on selling seasonal products.

“If it is a season for grapes or peaches and then that is what we sell. Now we are entering the season of oranges, that is why you see a lot of them here. I go to Epping to buy my produce,” she said.

The founder of Hatch of Oak poultry farming and recent winner of the Cape Town Entrepreneurial Challenge, Khaya Burwana, said as much as there were challenges for local businesses but it was important to find a niche in the market.

“I saw potential in poultry. I had an advantage because most of my competitors are in Paarl and Stellenbosch. The advantage is people do not need to spend too much money travelling. The challenge is that our local customers want to negotiate the price since they know us,” he said.

He won first place in the seventh #YouthStartCT Entrepreneurial Challenge that supports youth-owned businesses which stimulate job creation. The winner was announced last month at the Cape Town Civic Centre.

Jacques Moolman, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said its entrepreneurship programmes proved popular among its target communities and helped support small businesses.

“For a number of years the chamber has managed a highly successful entrepreneurship programme on the Cape Flats. The programme, which involves a partnership with ENSafrica, is co-ordinated by the chamber’s Khayelitsha/ Mitchells Plain chapter and consists of regular workshops and seminars aimed at equipping potential entrepreneurs with business management skills and knowledge,” said Moolman.

He said some of the events provide support for physically disabled people in business, too.

The secretary of Gugulethu Development Forum, Vincent Domingo, said small businesses were still struggling to survive. They had to compete among themselves and against big businesses.

“Even in the townships you will get two economies. The multinational companies are making extreme profit and small businesses are still struggling because they are overpowered by the establishment of the malls,” he said.

He said it was not only the responsibility of the government to improve the small businesses and the environment they work in.