Chicken feet business running down on level 4

Cape Town - Relying on the hunger pangs of shebeen-goers, Khuthala Somaza has been able to feed her family since 2013.

She sold chicken feet, but the pandemic has hit her business hard. The latest ban on alcohol by President Cyril Ramaphosa is having a bad impact on the much-loved township delicacy.

Braai meat is available from some shebeens, while others have braai stands outside their premises.

Somaza sells her chicken feet outside two shebeens in Khayelitsha.

She first washes them in boiled water to peel off the skin and then braais them and put a sauce on them while they are on the braai stand.

Somaza, a single mother of four, said she buys a packet of the feet from a wholesaler in Philippi for R100 and sells each foot for R1.

“The profit I make depends on the number of feet in the packet because they get scaled and sometimes they are not the same amount,” she said.

She said her whole family are dependent on the money she makes from selling her braaied chicken feet.

She added that what she was making was not enough but it was better than just sitting at home waiting for a miracle while children need to eat.

“Ever since I started, things have never been this difficult for me as now, as a result of lockdown,” she said.

Somaza said since the lockdown levels go up and down, she can’t overstock and be left with surplus when levels go up.

She said she knew her business would suffer when the president made the announcement.

“My stand is outside two shebeens and since they are closed I am not making any money.”

Somaza said her business would usually be busy from Friday to Sunday when shebeens are open and would sometimes sell out in one night. Before evel 4, she did not worry about opening her stand during the week because she knew over the weekend she would make her money.

“Now I open every day depending on the weather. Sometimes I have no choice but to open even if it is raining because my family are dependent on this,” she said.

Somaza said she hopes the next time the president speaks he will “come with positive news”, because they are suffering.

She added that she had heard that small businesses get help from government, but no one has explained to her what government means by “small business” and she doesn’t know where to go to get help.

Weekend Argus