Soweto Arts & Crafts Fair

Yesterday I visited the Soweto Arts & Crafts Fair which takes place on the first Saturday of every month at the Soweto Theatre in Jabulani, right next to the Jabulani Mall. It's the brainchild of Tsepo, Mbali and Simphiwe who are young artists and entrepreneurs wanting to make a difference in their community especially in the field they know well.

My visit served two purposes: mingling with residents in the constituency that is now confirmed as mine - Soweto West, which comprises 10 wards including Ward 34 where the market is located; and second, fulfilling my role as the DA Spokesman on Small Business Development.


The Fair has been going for a couple of years now, and I've seen it grow from a micro event attracting just a handful of visitors into a professionally organised and well promoted day out for hundreds of people wanting to spend time shopping for locally made goods as well as listen to good local music.

Shortly after visiting the Fair them for the first time I invited them to participate in the Soweto Festival Expo SMME programme, which they did in September 2013. I think they really enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot from it. Their business is going from strength to strength and the crafters and artists taking part in the fair appear to be making money for they return month after month.

Yesterday, there were around 30 stalls selling everything from numbered photos by the late, great Soweto photographer Alf Khumalo (see photo above) to hand bags, T-shirts, jewellery and clothing. I chatted to the founder of Soweto Apparel, Mazwi Lionel Hadebe, who started the business three years ago and received support from the Huddleston Foundation - see the website here. He is now selling more product online than through shops and is
enthusiastic about his business.

Grabbing myself a beer from the well-stocked theatre bar I wandered around and chatted to some of the visitors, enjoying the entertainment and generally upbeat vibe. Most of the visitors were young, in their twenties and thirties, wearing the latest fashions but what was missing was a decent number of tourists and whiteys who would have snapped up the goods on offer. I think this is an area the organisers should concentrate on, possibly by getting the tour operators to include the Fair on their routes through Soweto.

Someone came up to me and shook my hand, introducing himself as King, saying he had met me some years back at my office to talk about the Soweto Festival Expo. He is now mentoring Tsepo and his colleagues, via his business incubator he runs in Dube. This is a self-funded start up run along similar lines as the other incubators I have met, but the first I've encountered in a township. His partner showed me photos of their premises which look really impressive - I plan to visit them soon.

Even though the Fair is successful, the owners are experiencing problems and bureaucratic obstacles in their attempts to expand it. Two years ago they entered into an agreement with the owner of the now-defunct Sibisi Gallery in Melrose Arch, where they displayed works of art for sale and looked after the gallery while the owner was overseas. Unknown to them, she was in financial difficulties and the gallery was liquidated. One day the Sheriff of the Court turned up and removed the entire contents of the gallery as surety for Amdec, the owners of Melrose Arch who were owed rent.

Despite their protests of innocence to Amdec, they were sent from pillar to post by Amdec's lawyers and the Sheriff, who they accused of blatant racism and not taking their case seriously. When I spoke to the lawyer representing Amdec he denied all the accusations and said it was in the hands of the Sheriff. I have now approached Amdec directly to hear their side of the story. Meanwhile, Soweto Arts & Crafts have had their cash box taken from them as well as several works of art, some of which were returned badly damaged and rendered valueless.

The issue here is that young business people are often treated with disrespect by the big guys, and racism often rears its ugly head. I am not at this stage going along with their version of events, until I have heard the other side's, but they are not the sort of people to be telling blatant lies.

Another problem they face is getting support from the Department of Trade & Industry. The responsible official has visited them many times and promised support (financial and non-financial) but apparently the issue is that they are not a trader themselves but an events organiser, in this context anyway. The rules appear to be so inflexible that this is denying them direct support. How ridiculous is that! I am going to speak to this official to see what is really going on.

This is the sort of thing the new Minister of Small Business Development should be investigating. Bureaucracy and red tape are strangling small businesses just when they are at their most vulnerable.

Hats off to Tsepo, Mbali and Simphiwe for their vision and determination - may they achieve their dreams!

Earlier in the day I stopped off to chat to a former Cope activist who has now joined the DA and has all sorts of ideas for promoting us in Soweto. Cope hardly made any impact in the May election and it is doubtful they will survive another election. Then I drove to the far west of my constituency to meet Kgomotoso, who is a Communications Support Officer for the DA in wards 13 and 14, where she was handing out certificates to a group of her activists who'd helped in the election. It was much further away than I'd expected, on the road to Randfontein, but I spent a hour or so with them, introducing my self as their new political head, replacing James Lorimer who has moved to Linden. They know we have a battle ahead to challenge the ANC and that there are only 22 months to the municipal elections, when we aim to take Johannesburg.