Northern meat vendors congest roadside

IT IS very unlikely that one would travel across the north, especially on the Ondangwa-Ongwediva main road, without noticing makeshift stalls where vendors sell meat.

People slaughter cattle at these stalls and sell the meat to motorists, who often stop to either buy kapana for immediate consumption, or meat to take home.

All locations along this main road such as Akuna, Omaalala, Adolf, Opoto and Akwaanyenga are now teeming with meat stalls, and at times a first-time traveller might mistake the many vehicles parked on the roadside for people snooping on an accident.

Alfre ‘Soondaha’ Shivolo is a meat vendor at Adolf, and has been in the industry for eleven years. He claims that he was the first person to open the meat vending business in the area.

“I was the first to start selling kapana along the road in 2006,” he stated.

Shivolo said when he started his business, he sold cooked cattle heads.

“I did not have enough money to buy the whole beast for slaughter. But after saving, I bought one, and from there the real business started,” he noted.

Shivolo said after a while, some people, many of them now his competitors, came to him, first pretending to be customers who wanted to know for how much he was selling the meat.

“Before I realised it, the whole roadside was full of people selling meat,” he told The Namibian on Wednesday.

Asked how much each animal costs, he said it depends on the size, and would range between N$7 500 and N$8 500. If the whole carcass is sold, he can make between N$1 000 and N$2 000 profit.

However, during a ‘dry period’ when customers become scarce, he can make as little as N$500 profit.

“We buy wood, cooking oil and spices. So, if no meat is sold, all that money goes to waste.”

He said he and other meat sellers make good profits at month-ends, public holidays and during trade fairs.

Another vendor along the Ondangwa-Ongwediva main road is Eva Kuunasha, who sells meat at Akweenyanga, a few kilometres from Ongwediva. She has been in the industry for more than 10 years.

She buys cattle from farms in the Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein areas due to a shortage of livestock on sale in the north.

“There are no good cattle here anymore. Vendors have become too many, and good fat cattle are hard to find, especially after last year’s drought,” she added. According to her, she buys the cattle for between N$8 000 and N$10 000 each, and can make upwards of N$ 2 000 in profit.

According to Shivolo and Kuunasha, business has started recovering after a slump caused by the abundant fish brought by the efundja floods which hit the north earlier this year.

“Do not mention efundja to me. That thing ruined my business. People were not buying meat anymore because of the fish they caught freely. But anyway, now they are coming back. The fish is finished, and we are together now,” Kuunasha joked.

On advice to anyone wanting to join the industry, she said “There is no guarantee of a good profit, but it all depends on how hard you work, and how you treat your customers.”

Shivolo then warned those wanting to venture into business.

“There are friends and family members who just come and want to eat meat for free, or they promise to pay later, but never do,” he said.

Both Shivolo and Kuunasha employ a number of youths to skin, cut and help in selling the meat.

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