I know my South African friends will not like to hear this, but I will say it anyway🤣 SA has many opportunities for small businesses. It explains why many foreigners will quickly start a business on arriving in South Africa.
By the time I left Zimbabwe in August 2007, I had been a middle level manager. Even on that level my monthly salary hovered around R1 000, it was not enough to buy a bed cash in Zimbabwe. Like many Zimbabweans, I now made more in my hustles and only stayed in the job for benefits I had such as 300 litres monthly petrol, use of a reliable company vehicle a Toyota double cab and the 3 bedroom company house in Burnside, Bulawayo. By that time sales from my shops were over R20 000 per week. I eventually resigned after I bought myself an Isuzu bakkie and decided to concentrate on my hustles, Mugabe introduced the mid 2007 price control blitz😡
Salaries in South Africa are generally higher than in Zimbabwe yet goods and services are much cheaper with the exception of rentals which are more expensive in South Africa. Those expensive rentals is a business opportunity. My first business within 4 months of arriving in South Africa was rentals. My brother in law and his friend also from Zimbabwe had rented for years a 2 bedroom flat in Sunnyside when they were both PHD students at University of Pretoria, in December 2007, they were moving out and I took over the flat whose rent was R2 400. I rented out the dining room to three Zimbabwean ladies for around R2 400, the other bedroom to a couple for R2 000. The friend was not happy with me making money and cancelled the lease with the agent and I moved out on the fifth month.
Currently around Pretoria Central, Sunnyside, Arcadia etc there are people whose own source of income is having about 5 flats in their name and they rent out spaces to tertiary institutions students making a decent profit from each flat. I know of friends who save or take out loans and build rooms for rental in townships. In many surbubs you can advertise to share your home, it is a good idea when you have lost your job and you are struggling to pay your bond. There is no need to be embarrassed we all go through hardships at some point in life. You do what you have to do to get through the tough spell. The financial system in South Africa is more accessible to individuals and the interests rates are more affordable. I was able to buy my first car within 3 months of arriving in South Africa and paid very affordable installments. In Zimbabwe I wouldn’t be able to do so. I got my first credit card on the 4th months and with the money I was able to reopen my shop in Janhi, Mutoko in January 2008. Due to the inflationary environment of 2008 and massive devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar I was losing so much money and I closed the shop.
In Zimbabwe for you to get a homeloan, you needed the support of your employer to guarantee the loan otherwise you would not qualify nor afford the installments. Many foreigners will start looking to buy a home as soon as they arrive in South Africa even though it not very easy for foreigners to do so but the terms are much better than back home. Whilst I saw my South African friends buying the expensive VW Golf GTI or VW Polo GTI, I saw foreigners financing Uber vehicles. In 2017 I met a Zimbabwean who had four Uber black vehicles. For a price of one Golf GTI you can buy up to three International haulage trucks in a fair condition. Even buying a bakkie or a double cab makes sense, you can carry furniture for your neighbours and get extra income. During your off days, you can drive to Mpumalanga buy green mealies or oranges and sell from the side of the road and earn extra income. You can even employ someone else.
The adherence to rule of law in South Africa is good for business. I ran general dealer shops in Zimbabwe from 2001 up to 2008, things would be change overnight. During elections government would impose unreasonable price controls and confiscate your goods. In South Africa you can open your tuckshop or takeaway at home and the government will not arbitrarily demolish your business without a court order. In Zimbabwe things are different, I remember Robert Mugabe whilst opening the new highway to the airport in Harare once asked why there were houses on the way to the airport. Those houses had been there for years. The next few days the entire neighborhood was demolished😢
Many of my black South African friends envy Zimbabwe’s land reform but the reality is that the economic and legal environment makes it very risky to even farm in Zimbabwe. I can get as much land I need from relatives and friends. Some people have over 30 hectares of land that is lying unutilised. You can grow your maize and you will be compelled by law to sale to the state and be paid the useless Zimbabwean dollar. You can bring in your forex and grow as much tobacco as you want, when the tobacco is sold the government will pocket the US$ and you are paid in Zimbabwean dollar bank transfer and not cash. The current black market rate is about 4 times the official rate, so by farming tobacco you are losing money at the expense of the government which pockets your forex.
In Zimbabwe for you to get cash you pay a premium of up to 60%😢 Many people leave farms in Zimbabwe and decide to come and work in South Africa because the government policies in Zimbabwe can easily bankrupt a farmer. If South Africa is able to do a responsible and sensible land reform this will make South Africa more attractive for small businesses.
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