ON FRIDAY night at the Oshoek border post, there is a 1½-hour-long queue of cars waiting to deliver their passengers in Swaziland. It is the first day of the Bushfire festival — an annual three-day event held at House on Fire, a tourist attraction and performance venue. The bravest cars drive tentatively alongside the queue, trying to cut ahead, only to have a camouflage-clad soldier who can’t be much older than his automatic rifle turn them back to rejoin the queue.One can almost hear the “ka-ching” of the kingdom’s coffers with each vehicle crossing the border, because Bushfire and other festivals like it go a long way towards generating immediate and longer-term tourism revenue. The festival’s organisers claim that the event gives Swaziland an annual cash injection of 33m emalangeni (R33m). Bushfire’s economic footprint includes both official traders operating within the festival’s grounds and unofficial traders outside the venue, who peddle everything from artisan jewellery, pla...
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