Flying visit to the Cape Town Summer Market

Yesterday I paid a flying visit to the Cape Town Summer Market, which opened in the Company's Garden on Saturday and runs until the 30th (excl Christmas Day). It had both a professional and a personal purpose - the market is an important annual event in the calendar of over 200 informal traders, mainly from the Cape Flats, who make up part of my small business constituency; and it was a trip down memory lane, as I was part of the team that organised the market in 2012 and 2013 and I wanted to re-connect with many people who had become friends in the process. I spent a very enjoyable five hours wandering through the Garden as the traders set up their stalls. The treacherous south-easter wasn't blowing and the air was warm, perfect conditions in fact, with the breath-taking setting under Table Mountain making this a popular destination for Capetonians and tourists alike.



Adele Lucas Promotions, the company I worked for before my election to Parliament, won a three year contract from the City of Cape Town to re-brand and manage the Adderley Street Night Market. This market had been going on for many years and had become tired, behind the times and focused on a narrow demographic both in terms of visitors and traders. They City wanted a company to re-design and re-brand it, and our pitch to create a new Cape Town Summer Market won them over. At that stage we intended to move the market out of Adderley Street and onto the station forecourt and adjoining streets, but during a visit to Cape Town we met with various officials and during a walkabout someone said, "what about the Company's Garden?" So we all trooped off for a look-see and it soon became clear this site, though challenging, had unrivalled advantages. As late as October we made the decision to locate the market there, giving us just two months to put all the logistics in place.

Though this proved to be the right decision it came with some very serious downsides, making this the most difficult event any of my team had ever had to manage. We got flack from some parochial Capetonians for being a Joburg-based company, with some nasty racial overtones suggesting only a Cape Coloured company could manage the market. We had to make radical changes to the trader profile, reducing the emphasis on imported, trashy goods and introducing more locally hand crafted wares. This involved rejecting up to half the stall applications we received, leading to unhappiness among the Adderley Street Market old faithful. Then there was the issue of turning a pristine national heritage site into a venue for tens of thousands of visitors daily, with all the associated problems of littering, damage to property, emergency management, crime prevention, traffic control, fire prevention, provision of power, water and ablutions - to name just the most obvious.


My colleagues, Margie Varney and Rehaad James and I made numerous visits to Cape Town to complete the planning and event application process, which is very time-consuming and requires a meticulously prepared event plan which the City Events Committee has to approve before issuing a permit. Laying out the market making the most of the natural features of the Garden was a big challenge - we had to accommodate 160 traders, 40 food vendors split into a gourmet and fast food section, two entertainment stages, a beer garden, a kids play area, public toilets, a medical centre, Joint Operations Command centre, trader and public parking, and sufficient branding to turn this enormous site into a festive market.


We decamped to Cape Town ten days before the market opened and our first task was to run the trader briefing. This was essential, both to meet the traders for the first time and explain the rules and regulations so everyone understood what they could and could not do. The priority was to establish trust between us and the more unruly and vociferous traders, and assure them we were working for them. The biggest issue was the closing time of the market. Our permit put it at 8 pm, which was a real problem for the former Adderley Street traders who were used to running until 12 pm. This was considered too dangerous in the Garden, with its inadequate lighting making it a perfect hunting ground for robbers and rapists, but we managed to persuade the Events Committee to extend it to 9 pm if we brought in extra lighting.

We set ourselves up in the Bothy, a small building in the south west corner of the Garden near the Anglican Cathedral. This became our ops centre until we had to move, with just two days to opening, to another building which we shared with the Garden info centre. The worst part of the move was the interruption it caused to our trader placement plans, so when D-Day arrived we were not 100% prepared.

Recalling the next 72 hours sends a shiver down my spine. This is how long it took to get the market into a semblance of order and convince the Events Committee we had everything under control. The worst part was dealing with trader requests to move their stalls. The eventual layout of the market was completely different to what we had planned. It took on a momentum of its own until eventually we reached a point where most traders were happy.

On the opening day, the Mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille came to open the market. As her host I had to display a self-confident and calm demeanour and hide the bundle of nerves and anxiety that I actually felt. It was a punishingly hot day and as the Mayor stepped out of her official car in Victoria Street I said a silent prayer that it would all be OK on the day. Very fortunately it was, and we had a relaxed walkabout before the speeches and snacks at a reception we set up next to the beer garden.

Yesterday this all came back to me in a rush as I walked up and down Government Avenue greeting all the familiar faces. Last year's market had many of the same but some different challenges, among which was the extended duration of the market - 15 days, and the closing time of 11 pm. This meant an 18-hour working day for Rehaad and me (Margie left the company earlier in the year), leaving us totally exhausted.

But what made the whole thing worth it was the transformation in attitudes expressed by nearly all the traders, and the good business they did. We received very high praise in the event evaluation and last year's City impact assessment put the economic impact of the market at R40 million - on an investment of just over R2 million. Such returns are unheard of for events like this. Over 200 000 visitors poured into the market in 2013. Rehaad told me the opening day on Saturday was the best ever, even though for budgetary reasons there was less marketing this year. The Market has established itself as a fixture on the calender of traders and visitors alike.

Yesterday I said hello to many of the regular traders including Mustufa from Cairo Shawarma, Queenie Pon from Queen Stirfry and Charlotte from Tunga Creations. I had lunch with my sister-in-law Carolyn and her cousin Garth and his wife Kay, in the recently re-opened restaurant under the new management of the Madame Zingara Group. I inspected the new VOC garden created by the City Parks department, a replica of the original vegetable garden planted by the Dutch East India Company to supply passing ships. I also bumped into Henro Kruger and his family - I'd called him earlier in the day suggesting he pay the market a visit.

Rehaad and his team were ensconced in the Bothy once more and looked very well organised. I met Vusi and Craig, part of the management team, directing traders to their stalls, and heard very few complaints. I am sure the market will be a great success this year.

The informal traders sector in South Africa produces work and an income for millions of people and has been badly neglected by most government entities. Municipal bi-laws make it very difficult for traders to do business beyond specially demarcated areas, which are often far from where customers can be found. Earlier this year the City of Joburg had to be restrained by a court order from clearing the streets of traders and their stalls. They said they were a nuisance for shop-owners, shoppers and motorists but blithely ignored the terrible impact this policy had on the welfare of the traders and their dependents. The Metro police attitude and behaviour were shocking, totally ignoring the traders's rights.

Cape Town has a more enlightened approach but still finds it hard to produce policy which satisfies the majority of stakeholders. One problem is the traders do not organise themselves very well so you don't know whether you are negotiating with legitimate bodies. More effort needs to be put into training and development, covering issues such as product differentiation and marketing to make the markets more appealing to discerning shoppers.

I took the My Citi bus back to the airport at 5:30 after a wonderfully enjoyable few hours but with a pang of regret that I could not stay on for the remainder of the market. All things move on in life, I suppose.