BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE- The Incwala Ceremony is proving to contribute positively to the country’s economy.
Traditional wear vendors in the Mbabane Municipal Market revealed that they were experiencing a hive of activity since the commencement of Incwala Ceremony last month- saying they were making more sales than usual.
The vendors revealed this yesterday during a random interview at their working stations in Mbabane CBD.
Speaking anonymously in unison, the traditional wear vendors said they made double or more sales since Incwala started- saying business has not been so good since the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020.
“This year, we saw many tourists flocking in to buy full gears for Incwala and most of them did not ask for discount- boosting our profits which have doubled. Actually, sometimes we make profits in three folds,” they said.
When asked the average money they made per day, they said they could not divulge the information.
“We have a lot to cover with the sales we are making these days. Remember after the peak of COVID-19 we were affected by the series of unrests and economic volatility- so, it is hard to actually reveal the exact amounts we are making as there is a lot of ground that we need to cover,” they said.
Over a month ago, traditional wear vendors in the same market said they would offer discounts on most of their items, especially the costly ones and this would happen the whole of the festive season, through January.
Worth noting is that in during the above stated time, many people utilise traditional wear during Incwala (national prayer), traditional weddings and during ku-teka.
Simangele Mabuza, one of the traditional gear vendors, showed this reporter what they had in store, and it ranged from ticholo, emajobo, tidziya and others, saying that they always tried to modernise their items.
She said if a person came to buy and requested a discount, they would throw a discounted offer and take it from there.
“We will offer or take discount offers the whole of December and in first days of January,” said Mabuza.
Esther Ndlangamandla, another traditional wear/gear vendor, said the more items a customer bought, the higher the discount they would get.
“It would not make financial sense to us to discount low-priced items. The more they buy, or if they buy expensive items, we will negotiate the prices with them,” said Ndlangamandla.
