Street vendors in Thohoyandou in Limpopo say the heatwave is having a negative impact on their businesses. Scorching heat has been recorded in the past few weeks with maximum temperatures going up to 40 degrees Celsius in many parts of the country.
Vendors say their fresh produce spoils faster as a result of the high temperatures.
Emily Tshabuse from Makwarela outside Thohoyandou sells green pepper, naartjies and grapes. She says the scorching heat leads to most of her stock going to waste.
“I am currently experiencing a challenge with the heat condition because the heat is damaging my produce that I have to sell like green peppers. I recently bought a whole bakkie of green peppers and I only managed to sell 10 crates out of 100 that I bought for R3 000. I never got a profit. When I buy grapes that I am supposed to sell for the whole week, I can only sell them for two days, on the third day they are rotten. That means I will have wasted my petrol and my profit, which will not be enough for me to restock.”
Meanwhile, other street vendors, Nyawedzeni Nkhumeleni and Nicholas Mbedzi say they are also losing money as they cannot sell all their stock.
“The way it so hot, it is unbearable especially for us that are working from the street. We are just hanging on because we just can’t sit at home doing nothing. I would like to advice people to stay hydrated. If people have nowhere to go, they should stay at home. My vegetables are drying because of the heat. I am losing money because I cannot sell everything that I have stocked.”
