Inside the engine room of the township economy
Forget Sandton, the real street economy of SA happens in the townships and informal settlements, where nearly half the country now lives. Could these areas hold the key to reversing SA’s GDP and unemployment trap?
Not far away from Fourways’ glitzy Montecasino, there’s a turn-off to the Diepsloot Mall that takes you to Alvada Creations — a fashion boutique teeming with unusual designs and printed fabric. It isn’t exactly what you’d expect to find in one of Joburg’s poorest townships, notorious for having hundreds of thousands of people, all squashed into 12km². "I’m living the dream," says Tshukudu Salva Pasha, 29, the founder of Alvada. When she meets the FM, she is a walking advertisement for her product. She’s wearing a classic all-black ensemble with a white border trim — a modern take on traditional Xhosa attire — along with a heavily beaded necklace. From her tiny boutique on the corner of Tlou and Buffalo streets in Extension 2 of Diepsloot, Pasha creates the sort of outfits that you might see on global catwalks, alongside (distinctly South African) brightly coloured shirts, beaded pants and sheer skirts. Remarkably, Phasha even showcased her wares at the Torino Fashion Week in Italy i...
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