A formal plea to free an informal economy
“WE KNOW more about the lifestyles, behaviour and habitats of the wildlife of Africa than we know about the people,” said GG Alcock, who will launch his latest book, KasiNomic Revolution, at the Phansi Museum on Tuesday, March 5.
The book is a series of case studies that illustrate how the informal economy in South Africa should be taken more seriously.
Growing up in one of the most poverty-stricken parts of South Africa, in a district called Msinga in KwaZulu-Natal, Alcock was raised as a Zulu, learning the skills of survival in Africa.
“I was raised in a mud hut. My activist parents, Neil and Creina Alcock, raised my brother, Makhonya, and I in a hut with no running water, electricity or modern conveniences,” said Alcock.
His upbringing equipped him with valuable skills that have contributed to his success as a marketer, author and entrepreneur, and which are presented in his book.
“KasiNomic Revolution is about a revolution happening in the informal sector with a multitude of businesses and, in some ways, these businesses are responding to our massive unemployment problem. But on the other hand, it’s built on typical African township entrepreneurial value and it’s applying culturally-connected offerings to people within those environments which often the formal sector doesn’t get or doesn’t understand, or doesn’t know how to supply.
“There is a massive rise in African informal economies. KasiNomic Revolution is at once a business book, and at the same time a deeply human book about the people and lives of rural and urban informal societies. It is about the lessons of marketing, distribution, culture and modernity in an informal African world.”
Alcock’s previous works include Third World Child, Born White Zulubred and KasiNomics: “It’s been a progression really. KasiNomics was an attempt to get South Africa to look at this world with me, differently.
“KasiNomic Revolution is closely tied to that concept, but looks further than South Africa into the massive informal economies which represent the majority of economic activity in Africa and stand to transform African economics. So in both books, I set out to show the economics and massive potential of the informal sector which I describe using the now-cool term for the townships, ekasi – hence Kasinomics.
“I’ve set out to put a human face and depth on the cultures, lifestyles, hopes, fears and dreams of these people. If we have empathy and understanding, we are more able as regulators, financiers and entrepreneurs to find solutions which fit their needs, which solve pain points. It is also a deeply human space, where community and social networks dominate.”
Alcock’s wish is that governments, municipalities, financial institutions, corporates and township entrepreneurs would look at the informal market differently.
“The prevailing view is that these informal businesses are subsistence or survivalist business, which is absolute rubbish. The reality is that we don’t recognise how big these businesses are or how big their profitability is.
“I’ve profiled a whole bunch of these businesses. Some are larger, some are smaller where there’s a multitude of businesses, and the problem is that most of these businesses are constrained.
“They’re constrained by the opportunities to finance them, they’re constrained by the municipality wanting to pick them off the streets when they’re selling vetkoek on the street corner. They’re constrained by the opportunity for profitability. And, primarily finance.”