2 CONTENIDO DEL DERECHO PROCESAL

When asked how stock that was purchased from wholesalers or cash and carries outside the Delft South area was transported back to the business, two South Africans reported having lost their vehicles due to bad debt within the past two years. One explained that this was also one of the reasons why he now relied on Somali and Pakistani mobile distributors to deliver stock on a daily basis, as they were able to ‘…drop it off on the door step’ (field notes, 39mSA10O). The owner of the ‘huis winkel’ (house shop) said she has to spend a lot of time and money transporting the stock she requires to keep the business going. This participant reported that much of the profit that she made was actually spent on getting to the suppliers she preferred to support in Mitchells Plain and then transporting the items back home. Because she has no access to a vehicle she has to rely on taking public transport. Each time she has to pay for two round trips with a taxi and emphasised that the stock being transported on the day is valued at no more than R500 in total. Two South African spazas operations owned their own vehicle but did not report assisting any other spaza in the area with the transport of stock.

Of the six Somali participants who were in a business partnership, two had their own delivery vehicles, another two had partners who owned delivery vehicles, while one received assistance from a friend who also owned a spaza shop in the Tsunami area (a predominantly black township within Delft), and whose fuel costs he shared when going to suppliers. This participant’s (32mSom0.5P) friend was also a well-known Somali mobile wholesaler/distributor in the area who also ran a separate business conducting ‘shop to shop’ sales selling specific products, which he himself had procured, and then distributed to customers (spaza operators) in the Delft South area.

As in the case of his isolation in procurement, Participant 30mSom0.5P struggled with transport. Due to his affiliation to the Issa sub clan, few Somali businessmen were willing to assist him with the transport of his stock. He reported having to pay the South African neighbour R50 once a week to travel to Philippi Cash and Carry. He added that because his uncle (and partner) had sold the business vehicle, before returning to Somalia earlier this year, running the spaza had now become even more challenging as they could only transport limited amounts of stock in one trip. In addition, the vehicle, he said, would have at least

113 given him the option to make additional money through helping other spazas in the area with the transport of stock.

The remaining participant who described himself as the sole owner of the spaza shop received transport assistance from a close friend, but emphasised that he was in the process of purchasing a second hand delivery vehicle, as he felt it was crucial to the development of his business: ‘…with my own van I can sort out this shop [with transporting spaza products] but also help others and make more money at the same time [transporting other spaza owners products]…in this way my business can become strong (field notes, 24mSom01O).

Of the two Somali operators who owned delivery vehicles one reported assisting fellow Somali spaza operators with transport in Delft South, but emphasised that he did not want to make a habit of it because it took up too much time in his day. The other explained how he regarded the transport of spaza products for Somali spaza owners as a separate business altogether.

…Yes I also transport stock for my spazas and two others as well…I get extra money from that business as it is not the same as the spaza…it stands alone from that business…my partners in the shops outside of Delft must contribute to the transport of that stock as they don’t have a van, and the same goes for this [new] partner [ex- employee] now in Delft [South]…then the other two shops their bosses here in Delft I also charge the same price for transport…it is R50 for every R1000 they spend…no matter where you go…one place two place or three place is all the same…this way I have been making another business and more than R5000 extra in the month doing this…sometimes I don’t even have to pay for the petrol because the contribution from the others actually covers the petrol so I save in that case…but I am not the one selling products [mobile distributors]…others [many nationalities] and Somalis they also do this not me (field notes, 50mSom02P).

Participant 50mSom02P reported that he made an additional R5000 from the transport of stock from various suppliers to four spaza shops (in a ‘transport network’) all located outside the case study area. Although he is a partner in two of the four spazas, he still makes additional money from the transport of stock to the Gugulethu and Delft South businesses; the partners there have to pay for 50% of the transport cost of spaza stock. Together with the interpreter, five other Somali participants also confirmed the arrangement used by Somali

114 operators in the spaza trade when charging for stock transport service. In each instance it was reported that standard practice was to be charged R50 for every R1000 worth of stock loaded in for transport. They added that ‘big Somali bosses’ who owned and or partnered in two or three or more spazas were usually the individuals supplying transport. Somali ‘spaza bosses’ were said to own more than one vehicle, as ‘many were needed to service the multiple businesses they owned or were partners in’ all over Cape Town Metro Region (informal conversations with Abdi Wali Abdurrahman, field diary, 25 April 2012)

The last column in data table 9 shows the contribution of Somali participants who reported paying stock transport fees to either a friend, business partner or other individuals arranged through social or spaza business networks. The two participants, who explicitly said they paid this money to their partners, reported what their contribution was and were unable to comment on what their partners were paying. For example, participant 20mSom01P said he and two partners (one senior one junior) made about five trips each week to their various suppliers for stock, in total they spent in excess of R10 000 for that stock. However, the participant reported paying the senior partner, who owned a delivery vehicle, about R50 fuel each time they went to the supplier. In total the participant spends no more than R250 per week on transport costs. He assumed and ‘had faith’ that his partner was contributing the same amount of money as he was. The junior partner, who earned less money working as the shop assistant, was not expected to contribute to this cost, but it was anticipated that he would eventually split this and other spaza costs with the two more senior business partners as ‘he grows in the business’ (field notes, 20mSom01P).

Most of the Somali operators admitted that they did not mind spending money on transporting stock especially when it was another Somali clansman who owned the vehicle and supplied the service. Their thinking was that working with a Somali within their network that these individuals could be trusted, were able to introduce them to other important contacts in the spaza trade, were more likely to show patience during the purchasing process, had enough space in their vehicles to transport stock and were always willing to go the extra mile to assist. More importantly, it was well known that to transport spaza products from various major suppliers in the Cape Metro region was a lot cheaper when one used a Somali to transport ones stock than to use South African taxis.

The Bangladeshi operator spoke of the value of owning a vehicle and how that played a crucial role in developing the spaza business:

115 …Running a spaza you need to have a vehicle, it is critical to doing proper business and saving on transport cost for example, the wholesalers that I go to will cost around R70 per trip if I use my own vehicle even with the cost of petrol being so expensive, the guys doing transport for spazas, some are South Africans like taxi owners…they will know it is cheaper if you have your own vehicle but will charge R150, but Somalis who also take shop owners to the wholesalers…for the same trip the Somalis they are cheaper…ask R100 less for any stock under R1000 that you purchase, but with them [Somalis] it depends on the total amount of stock you buy….you pay around R50 for every R1000 (field notes, 36mBan03O).

Besides procuring directly from their formal suppliers as covered above there are two other means through which some spaza operators procured their stock. The first is through deliveries from various South African wholesale businesses including popular soft drinks, dairy and chip companies and established distributors of products such as bread. The second involves having access to and utilising what the research refers to as mobile distribution networks. This is covered by the proceeding section.