Food hub feels the knock of slow business due to new trading hours

SMALL food businesses at the newly opened food hub Makers Landing, situated at the cruise terminal at the V&A Waterfront are struggling under tougher operating conditions which includes earlier curfews and the alcohol ban.

But it’s not all bad news. In spite of the hurdles, one koeksister vendor at the market has been selling out and won an award to boot.

Faieez Alexander, also known as Fuzzy, runs his own Cape Malay koeksister business at the market called Fuzzys Koesisters.

The 50-year-old started selling his koeksister for income on Sundays in Wetton, in the southern suburbs in May, last year.

His business won lifestyle brand Vannie Kaap’s World Koesister Day competition.

He applied to Makers Landing hoping to sell his yummy koeksisters to a broader market.

“The last two weeks over the weekend I was sold out. Things got slower after the new regulations. We rely on our local people,” he said.

The business started a hospital drive with Dr Zameer Bay a month ago when the pandemic in hospitals was bad, and their staff hardly ate due to their busy schedules.

“Someone said that they wanted a koeksister. So Bay took it upon himself to make that wish come true. He ordered 100 koeksisters for Constantiaberg Hospital staff,” he said.

But Alexander refused the bill for the koeksisters because of the doctors' good intentions.

That same evening he got a call from the doctor to do the same thing for other hospitals in Elsies River and Mitchells Plain, among others in the same week.

On Friday he got a call which said that Gift of the Givers charity heard about the businesses good work and asked to deliver koeksisters to them as well.

When the food hub opened in December it held much promise of giving local chefs a boost to their business. Ranging from curries, to locally produced cheese, the koeksisters and coffee, businesses were given an opportunity to showcase their proudly South African dishes and treats.

Mmabatho Molefe, 26, who resides in Kenilworth is a tenant at the food hub and started her restaurant Emazulwini last year.

The restaurant makes traditional Zulu cuisine prepared with a Western twist.

But due to the alcohol ban they are not allowed to sell liquor which affects their business too.

“Food is enjoyed better when there is alcohol and I think people also acknowledge that. Customers have been staying away since the alcohol ban and the curfew,” she said.

“Being situated at the cruise terminal we hoped that we would be getting tourists, but because of lockdown we can’t really get tourists,” added Molefe.

Gomotsegang Modiselle also known as Chef G from MOSI Smoke & Braai, 34, who resides in Gardens said: “When lockdown hit it was hard to see the way forward in the food industry. Restaurants are hit with restrictions and are not able to trade. We are seeing a lot of our friends who own restaurants closing the businesses,” he said.

The 34-year-old said that they closed their doors in July by The Hot Skillet in Bree Street at Youngblood Arts & Culture Development and moved into their current space.

“We were able to help employees that were affected by Covid-19 and lockdown. It is rough. The fewer trading times that we have in this industry, the worse it gets,” added Modiselle.

Project chief of Makers Landing, Westleigh Wilkinson, said that they reduced trading hours from four to three days after the recent extended lockdown and alcohol ban.

“All the tenants are affected by the reduced footfall caused by general fear of the virus. Reduced footfall forces tenants to review all their costs, from food waste to staffing. Our advice to all tenants at the moment is to review every line item on their cash flow and to run lean operations,” he said.