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City Press reports that SA’s 48,000 franchise businesses are anxiously waiting to hear who will be able to do business again when the total lockdown ends at midnight on Thursday.
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that economic activity would be gradually scaled up after a comprehensive lockdown was imposed last month. About 94% of franchises in SA have been unable to do business since 26 March and it is feared that 75,000 jobs could be lost as a result. “But that is a conservative estimate,” indicated Vera Valasis of the Franchise Association of SA (Fasa), which expects that many more job losses will result if these businesses are not allowed to begin operating soon. In a letter dated 11 April to Trade, Industry and Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, Fasa asked that fast-food businesses be allowed to sell frozen, prepared food such as lasagne or pizza. “But government appears to have moved in the opposite direction to what we requested, and we do not understand the reason for that. It would have been an important lifeline for these businesses,” said Valasis. Fasa hopes that fast-food businesses will at least be allowed to do deliveries – without contact – when the full-scale lockdown is lifted. Valasis pointed out that the fast-food industry was not the only one struggling: “The whole franchise industry, with the exception of supermarket groups, has been dealt a heavy blow.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Liesl Peyper at City Press
- Read too, Final list of sectors entitled to resume under ‘Level 4’ lockdown to be published this week, at Engineering News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page