VENDORS’ E300 000 LOSS AFTER SHUTDOWN

MBABANE - Fruit and vegetables vendors incurred losses of up to E300 000 in the two-day public transport shutdown. This was revealed by the National Director of the Coalition of Informal Economy Associations (CIEAS) Mathokoza Sikhondze.

Over 300 fruit and vegetables vendors had to destroy unsold and rotten produce in all towns and cities. This comes after transport workers parked their vehicles in support of the two incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza of Hosea and Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi. The workers parked their vehicles on Tuesday and Wednesday. This resulted in the halting of several operations in the country and businesses were badly affected as few people came to town.

Disposing

Yesterday, the Mbabane fruit and vegetables vendors were seen disposing all the rotten produce that was not sold on Tuesday and Wednesday. These included green peppers, grapes, nectarines, plums, pineapples, litchis and tomatoes, among others. The vendors said they incurred serious losses in the past two days. They revealed that the shutdown came at a wrong time because they normally stocked on Mondays for the whole week. They said after learning that the public transport workers were not backing down, it was too late to cancel their orders.

One of the vendors, Phindile Simelane, said she disposed over E1 000 worth of stock. These included a crate of litchis, which she stocked for E400, a crate of grapes she stocked for E300, E300 worth of nectarines, a crate of green robot peppers, pineapples and plums. She said some of the fruit and vegetables were left from last week.
Simelane said they started making losses last week Friday, as they experienced a decline in their sales.

During the weekend, the sales were still down. Adding, Simelane said they could not even sell their produce cheap to recoup their capital because health standards were against that. “Sifile, asikhoni nekukhuluma. Look around, some of the produce was thrown into the skip (bin) because it was stinking,” she said. Further, she said they heard that the public transport workers would park their vehicles two days a month until the two MPs were released, which meant they were still to incur more losses.

Another vendor said the shutdowns were also stealing their children’s future. The vendor said the money she made through selling fruit and vegetables was used to pay for her children’s school fees. “I also pay for the tuition fee of my son with the money I make here. If this situation continues, he might just kiss his studies goodbye,” said another vendor.

The vendors pleaded with government to hear the people out and level the ground. They said the current political tension in the country was inconviniencing people and was making lives hard for many emaSwati. “We are losing the little that we are making, we plead with the authorities to meet the people half-way because we are the ones who are suffering a lot, together with our children,” said another vendor.

Another vendor who sells breakfast meals including tea, coffee, bread and soft porridge at the market, said in as much as she did not have to dispose her products, she was affected because she was sitting at home not making money. “My children will have a bleak Christmas because I have to close the gap that was created in my finances in the past two days,” she said.

The vendor said she made between E300 to E400 daily, but since she was at home, she did not make even a single cent. Manzini has over 100 fruit and vegetables vendors, while Mbabane has around 78. These cities have the highest number of vendors in the country.

Tensions

Meanwhile, the CIEAS Director, Sikhondze, said since the beginning of the political tensions in the country, informal traders were the most affected. He said informal traders lived from hand to mouth, therefore, a day of business interruptions hit them hard. He stated that every time there was a national shutdown, the informal sector suffered huge losses.

Meanwhile, cross-border traders were also not spared, as those who travel to Durban, Johannesburg and Maputo, who were supposed to depart on Tuesday and Wednesday, could not due to the shutdown. In as much as some were willing to transport the traders, they could not due to fear. Most of these were clothing and handcraft vendors.  Sikhondze urged all parties involved to come together and talk. “We are appealing to all structures to have a meaningful dialogue in order to have a conducive environment for all in the country,” he said.

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