Will South Africa’s street vendors go bust in a cashless world?

Nhassavele plays a guitar alongside a parking pay point in Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Oct 7, 2022. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

JOHANNESBURG: For more than a decade, musician Thomas Nhassavele has been busking next to the parking payment machine at Johannesburg’s Rosebank Mall, where drivers often dropped their change into his guitar case.

But Nhassavele’s takings have dwindled in the past year or two as growing numbers of mall visitors use cards to pay at the machine’s new cashless payment system – some mumbling a quick apology to him before they head for the exits.