Business-in-a-box mall concept gets innovators started
THE GROWTH and mushrooming of shopping malls all over the country is a good indicator of economic development – on the surface.
But looking closer and deeper at it you begin to see the ugly face or side of capital – the avarice or greed of capital for gain, from the most dire situations.
The system is organised, as I learnt on one trip when travelling on SAA with someone serving on the SA Board of Shopping Malls, as well as on the World Council of Shopping Malls.
He was boasting, among others, that these shopping malls were now a familiar sight, not just in former white suburbs but also in townships such as Alexandra. He did not mention, though, that these shopping malls are parachuted into these areas because of the size of the population, but that locals are merely consumers without a stake in the investment.
He further boasted that their premiere investor was the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). This was around the time that the PIC was under fire from trade unions on its investment policy.
Without dictating where the PIC may or may not invest, there is a need to look at alternative avenues for investment by public institutions such as PIC, as well as by private sector institutions, especially targeting areas of the economically disadvantaged.
In Philippi, Cape Town, on the corner of Eisleben and Govan Mbeki roads, a well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist, the founder of the Bertha Foundation, started a creative and innovative platform for small, micro and medium enterprises, together with the Business Place, the Philippi Village and the Industrial Development Corporation.
He secured containers that get converted into lockable business spaces of varying sizes. These are stacked on top of each other in a semi-circle, with those on the ground rented at R1 500 a month, for retailing products, and those on top rented at R1 200 a month for retailing services, with staircases and a platform to walk on along the length of the containers.
The environment is paved with brick and has toilet and sanitation facilities, with security personnel at the gates for the safety and security of both the traders and the customers.
The model is an alternative to the big malls – a mall for poor people in a sense, a place for local entrepreneurs such as women who sew and make dresses and other household items, plus others who retail services such as internet cafés or herbal medicines. One woman started by renting a single container, but in time she rented a second one to retail the goods she produced from the first container.
This helps entrepreneurs not to worry about getting into debt – just how to get started in business with little capital outlay.
The Philippi Village Container office serves as a back office or administration for the local entrepreneurs to get down to business.
This innovative approach calls for municipalities, as the coal-face of service delivery, as well as local businesses, development finance institutions such as the Industrial Development Corporation and the PIC to invest in infrastructure, especially in the metropolitan areas where large numbers of people can be lifted out of poverty, using their own bootstraps.
Rural towns, too, are to be included as this can be a way of revitalising the decaying towns and the surrounding villages. The model is a powerful tool that can be replicated throughout the country. It can go a long way towards contributing to the social security networks, especially for women.