This Heritage Day we need to put local SMEs before fast-fashion giants and fleeting bargains
Buying locally is not just an act of patriotism; it’s an economic strategy — and a very good one, says the writer. Picture: 123RF
South Africans love a good braai, and every Heritage Day, the smell of meat sizzling over coals drifts through suburbs, townships and rural communities alike. It’s a tradition that unites us across cultures, but while we celebrate around the fire, another tradition is quietly undermining our economy — our obsession with imports.
Scroll through social media, and it’s impossible to miss the adverts from Temu and Shein. Boxes of cheaply made clothes, shoes and gadgets flood South African households every week, money that could have been spent supporting a local seamstress, a township shoemaker, a start-up designer or a neighbourhood electronics repair shop. Instead, it disappears offshore.
If Heritage Day is about honouring what makes us unique, then surely it should also be about protecting and growing the businesses that reflect that uniqueness. Buying locally is not just an act of patriotism. It is an economic strategy, and a very good one. Every rand that stays in South Africa circulates through our communities, creating jobs, paying school fees, supporting families and building resilience. Every rand that leaves for overseas retailers weakens our manufacturing base and chips away at our economic sovereignty.
Without romanticising the past, our history certainly offers a few valuable lessons. Long before colonial settlers disrupted the economy, indigenous communities in South Africa were already trading cattle, crops and crafts in systems rooted in reciprocity and ubuntu. Trade was about survival but also about building relationships, sustainability and longevity. Today’s fixation on fast fashion and throwaway imports is the complete opposite, with cheap convenience and no consideration for long-term impact.
Buying local doesn’t mean rejecting innovation or clinging to outdated models. Many SMEs are blending heritage with modern tools
Since 1994, South Africa has seen a steady rise in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Today there are an estimated 3.6-million registered businesses, but too many of them operate precariously, trading only when opportunities arise. With little access to funding and many confined to the informal sector, these businesses struggle to achieve the consistency and growth needed to compete.
These entrepreneurs cannot build consistency and grow if consumers continue defaulting to overseas products. Heritage Month should be the reminder that our own entrepreneurs deserve more than occasional charity. They deserve a deliberate, sustained commitment from all of us, and we don’t need to look too far for proof that supporting local works.
Italy, for example, has built global industries around food and fashion rooted in cultural pride. South Korea, too, has turned music, film and design into multibillion-dollar exports. These countries thrive because their citizens back their own first, giving local industries the scale and stability they need to compete globally. South Africa could and should be doing the same. We have township cuisine that could rival global food brands, music that already dominates international charts and fashion that fuses tradition with cutting-edge design. What we lack is not talent or creativity but the habit of consistently choosing local.
Buying local doesn’t mean rejecting innovation or clinging to outdated models. Many SMEs are blending heritage with modern tools, selling beadwork on e-commerce platforms, using social media to tell township food stories or building digital marketplaces for African-made fashion. Supporting these businesses fuels modern entrepreneurship that reflects our identity.
Heritage Day should therefore be more than a day to braai, wear traditional attire and eat koeksisters and melktert. This should be the day we recommit to a collective shift, valuing our own products, investing in our own talent, and resisting the easy lure of imported quick fixes.
So when the conversations around the fire turn to rugby or politics this year, let’s also discuss how we can grow our economy back to the glory days of 5% GDP growth.
Heritage is not just about remembering where we come from. It’s about choosing what kind of future we want, and that future begins not in Temu or Shein but in the stalls, workshops, kitchens and studios of our own entrepreneurs.
The change starts with us and our everyday choices. Every purchase is a vote for the kind of economy we want. Do we want one built on fast-fashion giants and fleeting bargains, or one that celebrates and sustains South African ingenuity? The choice is ours to make, Mzansi.
• Mtwentwe AGA (SA) is MD of Vantage Advisory and host of the SAICABIZ Impact Podcast
