“Somebody get the charcoal and start up the flames, you there – get the meat ready – and as for you…put up a smile and get ready to serve our upcoming guests, we have to make a meal that they will never forget!”...

For the upcoming 2010 Fifa world cup that will be held in South Africa, a lot of changes are being implemented and despite entrepreneurs creating new businesses or taking risks to gain a huge income during the event, informal traders are not willing to stand down and watch opportunities of making money slip by. In South Africa there’s a variety of mixed cultures, religions, races and languages – multimillionaires, sponsors of the Fifa world cup and formal business sectors are primarily the benefactors that will generate an income during the event… But certain rules and changes are suppressing the informal traders from getting the opportunity to make an income – focusing on Durban, visitors will most likely go to places like Gateway shopping mall, uShaka Marine World, Pavilion, Musgrave, La Lucia, Umhlanga, Durban North etc and the list goes on… Just like in every other country, the informal sectors will be suppressed or the visitors will be prompted not to go anywhere near those areas (i.e. Kwamashu, Chatsworth, Umlazi or Ntuzuma), just to suppress the image of a poor, corrupt and struggling South Africa.

People have needs and wants such as desires for entertainment or some forms of pleasure, informal traders have focused primarily on satisfying these aspects for the visitors during the world cup by giving them a taste of the variety of meals that they have to offer in order to make an income. If you were to go to different countries, the first thing you’d notice is how things are done differently and also that the food is different and the same would apply for South Africa, but once you taste what we have to offer…you are guaranteed to want more. “If you won’t allow them to come to us then we’ll take what we’ve got to offer to them” and what informal traders are planning on doing is selling the variety of South African traditional food i.e. Umngqushu (Stambu), Biltong, Amangqina, Umgxabhiso or Amagwinya (vetkoek) etc. This idea was mostly motivated from the concept of tourism (due to previous visits to Africa – we have seen that the visitors have interest in African culture, wild life and other various luxurious landscapes). One thing that may be nostalgic for certain visitors i.e. American, is the way things are done in South Africa – e.g. “cookout” is a lot similar to the “braai” even though they may have slight differences. And like the sand in an hour glass, the countdown slowly reaches its limit and only time will tell whether success will be at hand for those who are determined during the World Cup or whether it will all be a lost cause.