Durban - The saying that a good businessman provides a service when he sees a gap in the market is brought to life at the Chatsworth interim camp, where some displaced foreigners have started selling essentials to their peers.
“I’m not making as much as I was when I had a tuckshop in Mayville, but this beats sitting around with no money coming in,” said Armindo Mauzio.
The Mozambican sells fruit, snacks, cigarettes and boiled eggs at the camp.
His tuck shop was looted during the xenophobic attacks last month.
“I used to sell everything, even bread and cool drinks, and I would make more than R500 a day. On a really good day I would make over R1 000, but now it’s a challenge to even make R150 a day,” he said.
He takes his informal business seriously and opens in the morning, only closing after sunset when activities in the camp die down. While most of the things needed for life in the camp are provided through donors and government help, Mauzio said he found it difficult to rely solely on handouts and had to find a way to earn money so he could buy himself other things.
“Other people go to work every morning and come back in the evenings, so they are earning. That money will help them when we finally leave the camp, whether they go back to the townships they lived in or are deported,” he said.
The camp has more than 500 foreigners. The majority are from Burundi and Congo.
They are from different townships around Durban and were brought to Chatsworth two weeks ago, after the Phoenix and Isipingo camps were shut down owing to dwindling numbers of residents.
Four large marquees are used for sleeping in and to store belongings, but some foreigners have started building informal plastic tents next to the marquees. Daniel Dunia said: “Living in packed marquees for over a month without privacy was getting to some people, so about 20 of them are living in these shacks.”
He said while it was not ideal to sleep in the shacks, crowded conditions made them an attractive alternative.
When The Mercury visited the camp on Monday, municipal workers were installing laundry facilities, including basins and washing lines.
Some of the camp occupants remarked that their situation was “starting to feel permanent”, and they were concerned that the problem of their children not being able to go to school had not yet been addressed.
“Every day something new is either being installed or built, but we are told that we will be reintegrated to communities soon,” said Celestin Manikarakiza from Burundi.
KwaZulu-Natal community safety and eThekwini Municipality officials on site said that reintegration programmes were under way in different townships.
The Mercury