Nawaal Deane
Hamid “Banjo” Cassim, the Johannesburg sweetshop owner at the centre of the cricket scandal, has converted his ordeal before the King commission into a business coup.
Biltong sales at his Fordsburg shop have been booming since the widespread publicity afforded him by the match- fixing saga. To cash in, he has repackaged his biltong with temporary labels proclaiming “Biltong by Banjo”.
He is also planning a flashy new package sporting the label “Cricketers’ Choice – Biltong By Banjo – Trialled and Tested By the South African Cricket Team”, which, he hopes, will be flanked by the signatures of the Proteas.
He wants to sell his biltong at the Wanderers stadium and hopes “Biltong by Banjo” will become a household name.
Cassim said this week he had been surprised at the increase in sales but had decided to make a joke out of it.
“I never made money from match-fixing so I have to cover my costs,” he laughed.
“People would come to the Sweet Junction to see who I am and buy biltong” – and sales have doubled, up to 40kg a week.
Cassim said his Banjo’s Biltong packaging had been “done crudely to take the mickey, but I plan to have the packets autographed by the different players and maybe have a sticker of a cricket bat on it”.
Before the match-fixing scandal, the biltong was just another item in the shop – but now it has become synonymous with cricket, he said. “Cricket without biltong is like a candy store without candy.”
Expanding to Cape Town and employing agents to sell his biltong to sweet outlets are part of his long-term goals.
Cassim has a reputation as “The Biltong Man” among the cricketers and a good relationship with most of them. “The players know me for my biltong and it started off when I gave Fanie [de Villers] biltong and after a while I would give biltong to all of them.”
Herschelle Gibbs laughingly agrees that Banjo’s biltong is the best: “The variety of the flavours is second to none, and I would have no problem promoting his biltong.”
Banjo’s biltong comes in peri-peri, mild peri-peri, salt and pepper and traditional.
Brian McMillan says: “Banjo has been supplying the players with biltong for years and it has kept the South African cricket team going.”
Cassim also gave biltong to the lawyers and media at the King commission in Cape Town.
“People started coming to buy biltong to watch the inquiry on television, like they would a cricket match,” Cassim said.
He said he is convinced “Hansie will back my biltong”, and to show that there are no bad feelings between him and the cricket establishment, he plans to send biltong along with the South African team on its tour to Sri Lanka.