As the business community continues its struggle from the effects of the infamous recession, the small businessman on the street also feels the hangover effects. This week Voice Money took to the streets of Francistown to do a business check-up with hawkers and vendors, asking them: ‘how is business?’

Itseng Boitshoko (48) Music Cassette and CD vendor since 1994:
“The music business is dead. It has been killed by three things: piracy, computers and memory stick. Because now when an album is released, people actually combine their money to buy one album and share it amongst themselves through such technologies. Piracy is also a huge issue because those selling such material are aggressive in their marketing and they get the customers. Before such tough times I could sell two cassettes and one once cd daily. Nowadays, like today, I can close without a single sale. Although sales fluctuate, they have been consistently very low. What often helps somewhat is when the Copyright officers raid to catch those selling pirated material.”

Kelebogile Nkwa (49) Sweets, fruits, and airtime vendor since 1990s:
“There is no business nowadays, things are not like they used to be two years back. This year, my sales are very low, I purchased stock but it doesn’t turn over to sales at a satisfactory time. Back in the day I could make P200 daily but now I am struggling to even make a P100. The problem is that there are a lot of vendors but not enough customers. Because there are no jobs, everyone now is a vendor. Even the youth who failed at school are setting up their small tables to make ends meet. Previously, it was the older generation selling because the youth were working. Now we are all selling the same sweets, airtime, and other goods like the youth. I have thought about venturing into selling clothes like used to but I don’t have a minimum of P8000 to order the stock.”

Taswika Phandu (31), clothes vendor since 2007:
“Business is really low. I just blame it on the ‘recession’. Things are not like they used to be since last year. Then I used to buy stock at least twice a month but nowadays I purchase once a month. I buy stock worth around P7000 monthly but I manage to only sell 60 % of it on bad months. Competition from other shops like the Chinese also has an impact because they can fake what we sell and they would sell it at a cheaper price. For example, this track-suit here goes for P150 but at the Chinese they would sell them for P50. That puts us at a loss. I would urge customers to give us traders their support.

Kagiso Khuru (32), newspaper hawker since 2009:
“It’s tough but it’s better than being unemployed. I tried for one year to get a job but nothing came my way, so I resorted to newspaper vending and I have not looked back since then, even though people call us all sorts of names like “bashi”. Mid month is the toughest to sell papers but I am on the streets daily. What I look forward to is selling The Voice because it sells easily and has better profits for me- I sell around 200 copies because it is popular. So that is how business is and how I am able to put food on the table. I am not abandoning this trade anytime soon, I will quit only when I don’t have the energy to walk the streets of Francistown.”

Boitshoko