Michelle Cocks and Tony Dold 83It peaked in the 1980s in Cape Town and dropped in the early and mid
1990s. In 1997 the trade started to increase as wholesalers began purchasing
material from the informal market in King William’s Town for resale in
other city centres. A distinct chain of role players are involved in the trade
of C. flanaganii. For many of the female traders, plant material sales are
their sole source of income besides the pensions for those over the age of- The women commute the approximately 20 km to King William’s Town
six days a week to sell the harvested material, each incurring transport
costs of approximately US$40 per month (converted at a rate of R6.41 to
US$1 as reported on 10 March 2000). King William’s Town (Figure 1) is a
large town with a population of approximately 28,000 people (Statistics
South Africa 1996). It has a dynamic business centre that supplies a growing
urban population as well as a large rural population of the former homeland
of Ciskei surrounding it. It is located on a national road linking rural areas
to urban centres as well as the major developing centres of East London
and Port Elizabeth and therefore is an important commuter point. The total
number of RMPs and herbal street traders (first order traders) is eight and
they sell their product at an informal herbal market situated at the taxi
rank, where herbal material is simply displayed openly on the sidewalk. Street
traders are predominately women who make their living from selling herbal
material in urban centres. In some instances they collect their own material
or they rely on gatherers to supply them with material (Cocks and Dold 2000).
The RMPs and herbal street traders in this instance are the same people.
Photo 2. Street traders selling medicinal plants within the informal market
in King William’s Town (Photo by T. Dold)05cassipourea.p65 83 22/12/2004, 11:04