Home

Durbanites flock to markets for Xmas gifts

A tourism bus
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The sunny city of Durban is abuzz with activity as tourists flock in, just days before Christmas. While some have already purchased Christmas gifts, many will run to malls at the last minute. This year, the city is pioneering Christmas markets boasting beautifully crafted, handmade products which serve as the perfect gift.

As you walk through the isles at the I Heart Market on the lawns of Durban’s iconic Moses Mabhida stadium – one is wowed by the skills of young South African’s doing extraordinary things. You will find everything, from handmade earrings, crafted wooden serving boards and even hand stitched African print clothing and accessories.

South Africans are making the choice to choose locally produced items as Christmas gifts this year.  Joy Foster is the owner of Pela Pela – a pepper cultivated exclusively in KwaZulu-Natal. She has turned them into delicious pesto’s and sauces packaged in Christmas gift sets.

“The pepper itself is called the Pela Pela. It’s small, petite, naturally sweet, at the moment it’s only grown in Eshowe. All our products are made in Eshowe. We come up with our recipes, all our pesto’s, the sauces are all made from this little pepper. So the peppers go extremely well in a salad, on a pizza, our pesto’s have such in-depth flavours that they are just stunning with your pasta, in your chicken dishes, you can use them as a sauce. We are packaging different sets to suit each person’s palette and our gifts sets are I think the perfect Christmas gifts especially to that foodie that you want give a gift to.”

Navigating through the market, the produce and hand crafted products are a sight for sore eyes. Nadia Jonker owns Woodnewz, a Durban -based company manufacturing handmade boards, made from hard wood. She says, when choosing your gifts this Christmas, supporting local brands boosts South Africa’s economy.

“They all solid hard wood so you looking at oak mahogany, cherry. We’ve got this big selection from our serving platters which are really large with bowls for condiments and spices, right down to our really small boards. With supporting local, it is something that is at the heart of our economy. It is supporting independent brands that are creating from their home, small factories. So you looking at selecting a gift that actually has been handmade, hand crafted, and high quality made with lots of love and care so you giving something that has been personalised, something that inspires people to cook and inspires them to also put together really beautifully put together food. What is the festive season about if not food.”

Sisters Zama and Phume Nsele are the brains behind African Glamour Collective, a brand that’s doing remarkable things for the proudly South Africa brand .

“It’s easy, ready to wear clothes and accessories mainly in African print. Head wraps, bag, ties, belts even clothes as well. I make everything from scratch myself. I design everything according to trends as well. If there is a new trend coming in, I do that in African print. By buying local I fell you support an entrepreneur’s dream and you helping them support their families as well. Everyone knows the fashion industry is going down because of Chinese stuff coming into South Africa but it’s still quality over quantity. Anyone who wants quality will still come to our brand as opposed to going to the Chinese brand.”

Author

MOST READ