”Madam of nations! Miss South Africa! How are you doing today, Miss South Africa?” Balancing boxes of fruit, a tarmac charmer aims his compliments in a steady stream through an open car window.
With little success, he shifts the boxes and ambles on to deliver his next salutation.
”Professor! General Manager! Mr Italian Job,” are likely choices for a male drivers — or he might simply be named after the car he drives.
Johannesburg motorists are a potential drive-through gold-mine for street vendors, with congested roads holding drivers captive until traffic lights change.
Plastic coat hangers, mangoes, cheap cellphone chargers, fresh flowers, gimmicky seasonal hats, super-glue … the range is eclectic and so is the sales talk.
For some, syrupy compliments are an attempt to coax a smile and perhaps a sale from drivers, many of whom may feel their privacy is being invaded.
Most vendors eat exhaust fumes for their efforts. But it’s a potential sales edge for sellers to move off the pavement and into the streets.
No definite figures are known, but there are ”a great number of street vendors in Johannesburg”, says metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
Street vending is not illegal and a permit is only needed if cooked food is sold.
”All people who sell on the road are classified as a street vendor,” Minnaar explains. ”People may trade on the road anywhere in Johannesburg as long as they do not contravene the by-laws.”
The long list of offences includes not trading next to an ATM, next to a place of worship or a government building, or in an entrance to a shop.
No trading is allowed within 5m of an intersection — an area marked by yellow lines next to the kerb on the corners of intersections.
The middle of the road may fall outside the area, but vendors may not obstruct or endanger motorists, or themselves, under additional by-laws, Minnaar says.
When by-laws are violated, traders can be fined but goods are mostly confiscated and taken to the city’s pounds.
”Everything you see on the road, we’ve got [in the pounds],” he says.
”Because there are so many, they contravene the by-laws very often. So we have to have squads to concentrate on the enforcement of these by-laws. They have huge trucks that go around and confiscate these goods.”
Those with perishable items, such as fruit and vegetables, pay R350 to get their goods back while for others it’s an R840 fine.
A former shop supervisor in Zimbabwe, Edward Chikuni (30) left goods worth R500 in the pound as they weren’t worth the fine.
”Metro police tell us not to sell at the robots. We are actually breaching by-laws but it’s simply because we need to make a living,” he says. ”We want something formal but it’s very hard to get it.”
He works for himself and turns over an average of R60 a day if he sells three baseball caps at R20 each.
Metro police have plans to remove beggars from traffic intersections but Minnaar points out that traders are not beggars.
”They are people who are unemployed and trying to make a living.”
One vendor told the South African Press Association that minimum earnings for a day, when selling for someone else, were about R30 and that it went up with the day’s turnover.
He tries to advertise his wares with a litany of ego-boosters and upbeat friendliness — advice given to him by fellow vendors when starting out.
Some drivers smile.
”[Others] will open the window and tell me you, don’t understand the word ‘NO’.”
When it comes to selling, flattery is not the stupidest technique for people at the bottom end of the sales food chain, comments Peter Gilbert, of the sales consultancy firm HR Chally South Africa.
”What else do you have to do to differentiate yourself and be more engaging?”
Customer understanding usually forms parts of the general sales environment.
”You don’t get that opportunity at a traffic light. Your only option is to be confrontational or alternatively disarm people,” Gilbert says.
”If someone tries to manipulate me, I become hostile, but if they’re charming I’m less likely to act that way.”
Throughout the day, vendors clamour for attention as cars edge into the lanes splitting the traffic flow. Most drivers face forward, impervious to passing commerce or emotional manipulation. Few windows are open.
When an opening is found, it is immediately taken.
”Do you know who you remind me of?… Angelina Jolie.” — Sapa