Businesses crying out for support
State fails to help canny creators
Driving down the M20 in Soshanguve, the main artery through the sprawling township north of Pretoria, you’re bound to notice the mass of goods on sale on the sidewalk.
From large and ornamented steel gates to big and small Wendy houses, customers are spoiled for choice. Doors, pieces of furniture and building blocks are among a range of products sold to travellers.
All the products are made on the side of the road or inside a makeshift yard.
Near every product on display, a group of men are hard at work making new ones.
The townships surrounding Pretoria are awash with informal manufacturing.
And some believe this is where the government’s Black Industrialist Programme should tap into.
Similar products can be found along the main road in Tswaing, a community near Soshanguve, as well as Solomon Mahlangu Drive in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria.
But the men behind the products tell a sad tale of how they barely enjoy the fruits of their hard labour.
Their main problem is that they do not supply any stores, a fact that leaves them with a restricted market in the town- ship, Sowetan learnt during a visit to Soshanguve over the weekend.
“We have nowhere else to sell our products except here on the side of the road,” said Justice Chuma, who was making a bedroom cabinet. “That’s our main problem.”
Chuma and his team design various furniture, including couches, wardrobes and beds. “Our products could be sold in bigger shops. We don’t supply such shops because we don’t have connections,” he said.
But the space they work in creates its own problems, Chuma said. “Ideally, we should be manufacturing the products from a warehouse.
“Lack of capital prevents us from doing that. You need capital to rent out a firm. We’re ready to work from such a space, but where’s the capital?
“Sometimes I feel our market is limited because our working space doesn’t inspire confidence [in the public]. Maybe people don’t take us seriously, though we produce the same things they buy in stores,” said Chuma.
Isaac Mthethwa, who produces sofas and doors, has similar concerns.
“If it’s raining we’re not working. You can’t set up a warehouse here on the side of the road. It’s illegal. Given a chance to produce from a larger platform, we could produce more things,” said Mthethwa.
According to Statistics SA, while one million people were employed in Pretoria, an estimated 345 000 were unemployed and 64000 were discouraged work-seekers.
The lack of a customer base for these producers was so acute that products could go for months without being sold.
“A finished product sometimes stays for six months, even up to a year, without being bought,” said Robson Mpahlo, who specialises in furniture, gates and window guards.
“The unfavourable market conditions also often force us to drop prices. You find yourself selling a gate worth R7 000 for R5 000.
“But that’s not good for business because you need to purchase [production] materials. The production cycle must continue,” Mpahlo said.
Mpahlo, who hails from Zimbabwe, sharpened his welding and carpenting skills in South Africa.
Speaking to Sowetan near his finished Wendy houses, Sani Baloyi said: “The customers are not enough. You see, we’re many in one road producing similar things. We need a proper market.”
Mthethwa said he has supplied a shop before, but the relationship collapsed due to unfavourable conditions.
“They insisted on paying us once they’ve sold the goods. It left us without capital to buy materials,” he said.