With a few seconds to make a successful sales pitch, self-styled car guard Isaac Mokeng doesn’t waste a second in blasting drivers with unsolicited promises.
“Woza [come]! Chief! I’ll give you a nice parking,” he throws at the traffic inching toward one of South Africa’s top sporting grounds.
A driver takes the bait and Mokeng sprints to an ad-hoc parking space to haggle a tip before taking up the hustle again.
Flush from South Africa’s recent hosting of the Indian Premier League (IPL), car guards like Mokeng are praying for a vehicle watching boom at next week’s FIFA Confederations Cup.
“I hope there are going to be many cars again,” Mokeng said. “It’s a good job for me because I earn something to buy some bread.”
Over the past decade, thousands of people have popped up in South Africa’s streets, malls and sports stadiums to stake out parked cars and ask for cash tips.
It’s a self-appointed industry that mixes opportunism and entrepreneurship to capitalize on South Africa’s grim crime — some 39 carjackings and 220 thefts per day — and a 23.5 percent unemployment rate.
The South African government has assured fans that next year’s World Cup will be safe, despite taking place in one of the world’s most violent societies.
“The Confederations Cup will not be an exception,” police minister Nathi Mthethwa said. “We are preparing ourselves for the 2010 World Cup and we are confident.”
Some 10,000 officers will be deployed to the four host cities for the curtainraiser’s two-week run with assistance from emergency and defense forces.
Undoubtedly in the background will be the country’s unshakeable army of car guards, despite not being part of the official plans.
“They told us they don’t want car guards there by Confederation and 2010,” Mokeng said. “But I’m still working at Ellis Park [in Johannesburg]. I must go because I need some money to support my children.”
Big sports events mean big money: car guards reported scoring double their usual day’s take during the recent IPL matches.
One of the hopeful is Nisbet Parella, who works in Johannesburg’s trendy Melville area, and has shrugged off bribes from car thieves and made citizen arrests.
Usually tipped 5 rand (US$0.60), he takes home 80 rand to 120 rand a day to support his four children and wife.
“I choose to work for myself. The advantage is that when you are a car guard you make cash now. Our problem is that some of the people don’t appreciate [us], they don’t even say thank you. They just take the car and go,” Parella said.
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