Moneyweb reports that while restaurants have been allowed to provide delivery services and more recently takeaway food and alcohol under Covid-19 lockdown Alert Level 3, the new normal has not been enough to cover a number of restaurants in the industry.
“It’s definitely a tiny breath but it has not taken us off a ventilator – we are still in ICU,” commented Grace Harding of the Restaurant Collective, an association representing sit-down restaurants. Restaurant doors closed for over a month when the country went under a hard lockdown from 27 March. Some reprieve was provided in May when Level 4 restrictions allowed for the sale and delivery of hot food. From the beginning of June, this was extended to pick-up takeaways as well as the delivery of alcohol. “It’s good but it’s not going to feed everyone,” noted Harding. Wendy Alberts, CEO of the Restaurant Association of SA (Rasa), said the industry across the globe has been “completely decimated” by Covid-19. “There’s been no relief for us. We have had to completely transform our business models from the onset with delivery, and then with takeaways. It’s not the standard business model [of what] we do,” she observed. According to Rasa, there are about 23,000 restaurants in SA employing around 800,000 people. The longer the restrictions remained, warned Harding, the more staff would have to be retrenched when restaurants did open because the businesses would be under pressure to manage costs.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tebogo Tshwane at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page