The canniness of the long-distance trader
● Women from rural villages are giving formal traders a run for their money.
They have learnt to work Johannesburg’s inner-city bargain stores to their benefit, selling goods they have bought to earn money to support their families.
Sneakers, bedding and clothing are favourite items, and buying in bulk means the women can negotiate good prices.
This time of the year, taxis piled high with bargain buys drive to villages packed with goods to flog to a captive market at large mark-ups.
Martha Mokwati travels more than 600km every two months to buy items in Johannesburg that she resells in her remote village of Lwamondo, in Venda, Limpopo.
“After spending about two years without finding a job, I decided to start selling items people in my community needed,” said Mokwati. “We are far from everything, so I decided to bring things closer to my community.”
This is the only source of income for the married mother of three, who started selling small items like pegs, facecloths and toys, later adding blankets, curtains and clothes.
December is her busiest month, requiring two trips to Joburg to stock up — but the reward is an average profit of R15,000 a trip.
She has joined forces with five women from neighbouring villages, and they share the R800 it costs to hire a taxi.
“Most people also get married over December and I have a high demand for blankets because they are usually used as gifts to the bride’s family during lobolo celebrations,” said Mokwati.
For items such as takkies, a favourite among the youth, she scores an asking price of R500 while paying only R110 a pair. Blankets that cost her R200 sell for R500.
Sthe Skhakhane, originally from Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal, is employed as a domestic worker in Sandton. The single mother of two said the bonus she receives from her employers is too little to cover clothes for her kids and groceries in December.
In 2015, a relative asked her to buy blankets in Joburg. She added a mark-up, and realised she could supplement her income.
Now, every time she returns home, she comes back with orders, and her customers don’t mind waiting up to three months for their goods. She works on orders only, and customers pay upfront.
Portia Mustaka, a clerk at a clinic, travels regularly from Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape. She sells curtains, blankets, brooms, household cleaning chemicals and seat covers. She adds a mark-up of 100% on most of the things she sells, “to make sure I make a profit and cover transport costs”.
She gets good returns on curtains, buying at R80 and selling for R150. “Most of my customers are women and they usually tell me that curtains are actually one way of thanking themselves for working hard throughout the year,” she said.