Tough times for Cape Town families during Covid-19 pandemic

Cape Town - While the move to alert level two of the lockdown allows for the battered economy to begin its slow recovery, for millions of South Africans this has come a little too late.

Throughout the first three months of the year, 350 000 people joined the unemployment lines, taking the total number up to 7 million jobless people in the country.

According to the national treasury, 1.8 million jobs could be lost as a result of the current pandemic, while unemployment might surge to 50%.

A 32-year-old mother of one, who worked in the tourism industry, said losing her job turned her into an entrepreneur, but others have not been so lucky.

“I had just started at a new job when Covid-19 hit the country. We were not prepared for what was to come because we had all been looking at the virus as a foreign country virus which would not hit our shores. Even when the first case was reported in KZN, we still had not fathomed what was to come.

“By the time the lockdown was announced, we had already been hearing the rumours but when the president said it, our hearts sunk. The owner of the tourism company I worked for gave us two options, no salaries until things go back to their normal state or retrenchments.

“I took the retrenchment offer because no one knew when things would get back and I decided to start up a small home business which has been working quite well for me over the last few months,” she said.

Nontobeko Moyo, a 36-year-old who worked at a restaurant in Bay Side, said she lost her job at the start of April and has been struggling ever since.

“No customers, no work, no work, no pay. That is the nature of the restaurant business and we all know it. Losing my job is not the be-all and end-all, but for me, my greatest fear is not being able to get another job any time soon because so many restaurants are closing their doors because of lockdown.

“I have two children to feed, my son is meant to go to initiation school in December if the government permits it but finances are really tight,” she said.

“With them not going to school and me not travelling to work there has been a little bit of saving and the little bit of money I got when we lost our jobs but it is running out fast because I take from it and there is nothing going back into the kitty,” explained Moyo.

Many restaurants reopened at the beginning of May when Level 4 restaurant food delivery was announced. But by then, as many as 40 restaurants had already closed up shop.

As early as March 24, all staff at the Shortmarket club owned by Chef Luke Dale Roberts were retrenched in an SMS the chef sent out at the time.

The reason was that “there simply is no money left after we pay them their full departure packages".

Johan Snell, 42, was working for a construction company when lockdown happened.

“We were renovating a house in Stellenbosch but had to stop all work on the house. Now only some have gone back because the owner of the property can’t afford to take us all back. The guys who went back started in level three already but I am sure something else will come up for the rest of us,” he said.

Snell lives with his wife and three children in a Wendy-house in Mitchells Plain. The family is now living off the wife’s domestic worker salary.

The owner of Jessy’s Waffles in Camps Bay confirmed via a Facebook video that the business was permanently closed as of Monday.

A UCOOK initiative aimed at financially supporting the staff of the restaurant trade was launched in June amidst news of more and more outlets taking immense strain.

For seven weeks UCOOK offered a specific restaurant's featured dish designed by their pro chefs, and with each dish ordered, a portion of the revenue went directly to the restaurant.

UCOOK hosted 6 live cook-along sessions with the featured chef giving live expert advice to those who had ordered the dish for delivery and were cooking along.

Almost 18 000 viewers tuned in for the cook along which raised R300 000 for the campaign to help save some of the city’s beloved restaurants.

Weekend Argus