SAClips

In early 1960s South Africa, Café-de-move-ons were present wherever there were substantial numbers of workers or city passersby in need of refreshment. Vendors were frequently arrested in police raids and fined or imprisoned. Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has witnessed the phenomenon of rapid urbanisation. Thousands of workers commute daily between townships and cities to earn their livelihoods. This has sparked a re-birth of the trade in refreshments, loose cigarettes, sweets and chips along pedestrian routes. As in the past, vendors face harassment by the powers-that-be. The Spaza-de-move-on is a design response to the need for an efficient, easily-transportable solution for vendors. Its evolution involved bottom-up collaboration with Moses Gwiba, a street vendor with whom I have formed a relationship over a number of years as a pedestrian in the city of Durban. His hail, When you make something for me? inspired this South African solution.