By Katlego Mokwena, Own Correspondent
Beitbridge- Ilala palm artisans at Shashe Beitbridge are reeling from falling income levels at the behest of shrewd middlemen who are exploiting the hardworking craftsman’s sweat and cashing on it. The artisans are crying for fair prices for their ilala products.
The artisans have long relied on ilala as a vital source of income and for generations, local artisans have heartly and skillfully crafted ilala products such as baskets, mats and brooms selling them to tourists and traders who throng the site.
The artisans who say no one is there to represent them and fight for their cause claim they are paid meager prices for their hard work while the middlemen reap huge profits. which has resulted in exploitation by middlemen leading to erosion of incomes.
“The once-thriving craft of basket making has declined and most artisans now focus on producing brooms which for over a decade their price has remained stagnant at R5 despite rising cost of living conditions”, said an artisan who has been crafting for over 50 years.
The labor-intensive process of harvesting and crafting ilala products, coupled with the dangers of working in a wildlife-rich area makes this paltry sum more unjust.
Another local artisan, said, through Ilala many artisans managed to build homes and take their children to school but now they can only afford a 50kg of mealie meal.
“We have no one to stand up for us in demanding fair prices, we just accept what the middlemen are offering and sometimes they buy on credit and pay us months later”, she said.
Efforts to get a comment from the community leadership were fruitless, in the meantime, the artisans continue to do what they do best, weave their beautiful crafts, hoping for a day when the fair pricing regime that has kept them in the craft for years will return.