Huge profits for Zim immigrants

Some of the vendors who spoke to The Zimbabwean on Sunday said they buy the football merchandise from wholesale shops in Johannesburg and other cities that they sell to passersby at street corners and on busy intersections.

The flags of countries playing at the World Cup, soccer jerseys, soccer balls, caps, scarves and the famous vuvuzelas are selling like hot cakes as World Cup excitement reaches for boiling point here.

A vendor, Tafadzawa Chimbudzi, who says that he has not been able to find formal employment since coming to South Africa several years ago, told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that the South African flag was the fastest selling item especially on days when Bafana Bafana is playing.

With the South African flag, you can never go wrong. I have noticed that this is the most popular of the items I sell so I make sure that I buy a lot of flags. When South Africa is playing a match, the sales soar to such an extent that you wish you would have purchased more items, said the 24-year old Chimbudzi.

A South African flag sells for between R20 to R60 with the price dependent on the size of the flag. The noisy vuvuzela sells for R30.

Chimbudzi says on a good day he can make as much as R300 in profit.

Another Zimbabwean youth, Fungai Madzudzu, said his best merchandise for teams such as England and the United States USA match also sells very well adding that he made lots of money on the night the two countries played a each other Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace near the city north-western city of Rusternburg.

I went directly to the stadium and I was able to sell England and USA flags to the supporters there. The vuvuzela was also quite popular and I had to teach some foreigners how to blow it, said Madzudzu, however careful not to say juts how much he made on the night.