Stroll through South Africa’s villages – as steeped in ancestral tradition as they are deprived of basic services – and you will come across the convenience store, writes Tom Burgis.

Invariably housed in corrugated iron shacks and run by between one and three people, they serve the villagers that live in the settlements’ thatched huts. One of the major trials of running a business in these circumstances – often without electricity, let alone an accounts department – is managing stock.