Wages of Resistance | Workers suffer as strike brings once-thriving Rustenburg to its knees.
Reports of further job losses, shop closures and a growing number of car repossessions have compounded a bleak picture of a town once hailed as South Africa 's fastest-growing economy.
For informal traders such as Malebamang Rakuba, 40, who runs a food caravan near the Wonderkop hostel outside Marikana, shutting shop is becoming a reality. The mother of two used to sell 30 chickens a day, but now struggles to move five. "This business is as good as dead," she said.
Julius Beleki, 19, who sells grilled mealies on a road near Anglo Platinum's Khuseleka mine, said 100 mealies a day flew off his griller. Now he is lucky if he finds 40 buyers.
"I've even stopped giving the miners mealies on credit as they don't have money to pay me due to the strike," he said.
"On the retail side, we have observed a significant increase in both arrears and repossession in the Rustenburg area," said Wesbank spokesman Rudolf Mahoney.
"On the corporate side [where the arrears cycle lags that of the retail market], we are now starting to observe an increase in the arrears. It is therefore evident that both arrears and repossessions are much higher in the Rustenburg area than in the rest of the country."
The usually buzzing Platinum Square and Waterfall shopping malls near the N4 highway were virtually deserted on Wednesday. A worker at the local Shoprite, where there were hardly any shoppers, said: "I don't know why we're even open."
Pickles and Ice Cream, a maternity and baby clothing shop at Platinum Square, is also struggling.
Store manager Antoinette Breedt said: "It has put us through a terrible period as we've not made any profit ever since the strike began."
Breedt said although trading had come to a near standstill, its doors remained open because it had to honour its lease agreement.
In the small town of Marikana, 35km away, the grim picture of empty pockets and hungry stomachs was impossible to ignore.
Desperation was etched on the faces of the striking miners and the informal traders who survive on their business.
Many of the workers have resorted to begging on the street for food. One of them asked for a piece of biltong.
"This could be my only meal of the day," he said after being given two pieces of droëwors.
Short-term money lenders, such as Money Wise in Marikana, have reduced their trading hours as they wait for the more than R150000 they loaned in January to be paid back.
"We can't take action against defaulters, but we also can't issue any new loans," said clerk Violet Mathibe. The business now closes at 2pm.
"We're open to deal with inquiries, but we can't close our doors because then customers will think we've shut shop."
Economist Mike Schüssler said it would take Rustenburg "years to recover".
He said the setback caused by the strike would be felt for a long time and not only in Rustenburg. It would also reverberate in the Eastern Cape, where many of the miner s come from.
mahlangui@sundaytimes.co.za