South Africa October 2006 |
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| SA shopping malls luring Africa’s traders, (Star and Reuters, 2006-10-10):-While most tourists head for South Africa's beaches and safari parks, many African visitors forgo the natural wonders for shopping malls. For years, cross-border shoppers from Southern Africa have flocked to Johannesburg, South Africa's financial centre, to buy cheap goods that can be taken home and sold for a profit. Now officials are seeing their own dollar signs after a study showed the influx of African "tourism traders" lifts the local economy by R20-billion a year. The spending bonanza by these shoppers includes cash register sales and expenditures on overnight accommodation, meals and transportation. In 2004 - the latest year of available data - the hotspots for more than half a million African visitors were South Africa's array of shops, mainly wholesalers. "These are typically low- to middle-income people who come because there is a wide variety of goods and good quality. And these stores may just be popping up in their own country," says urban consultant Neil Fraser of the newly formed Joburg Cross-Border Shopping Association. Most visitors come from Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Malawi, where many people live on less than a dollar a day, says Tammy Lieberman, from a consulting firm hired by Joburg to study the issue. Urban economic development officials are hoping to harness this powerful consumer base in a city often ignored by other visitors because of its reputation for high rates of violent crime and xenophobia. "We cannot ignore this huge number of people. We need to keep attracting them," says Linda Vilakazi-Tselane, acting director of the municipal Economic Development Unit. A welcome booth for cross-border traders is due to open this year at Johannesburg's Park station and the development of a new passenger boarding area is under way. Cross-border traders have increased by about 50% in the past five to seven years. The private sector is considering requests to construct basic lodgings, with cheap nightly rates, says Vilakazi-Tselane. One of the most popular destinations is the "cash and carry" - massive warehouses where aisle after aisle of bargain-priced goods tower several storeys high. Hairstylists can fill oversized shopping carts with braids, perm solutions, stand-up hairdryers and cash register rolls. Cash is usually the only method of payment, with big-order customers the only exception to a strict no-credit policy. This makes the shoppers vulnerable targets for robbers. Some shoppers are unaware of a tax refund process at the border, where they face long queues. A four-hour wait at land crossings is common as customs officials search for illegal items and check receipts to charge duty on purchases. "As time goes on it becomes more strenuous," says Zimbabwean trader Mary Sibanda. For a decade she has travelled the route weekly to stock her table in a shantytown market. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |