The extension by 30 days of the Amended Level 3 Adjusted, until 15 February, is crippling the restaurant industry, and a number of restaurants have announced that they are closing their doors permanently, or are doing so until 15 February.

While the Restaurant Association of  South Africa is trying to support the Restaurant industry by creating a hashtag campaign on Social Media, its Communication wording is contradictory, requesting that the Curfew time be extended rather than that it be reduced, achieving exactly the opposite!  What the Association is actually trying to say is that the Curfew starting time should be later in the evening.

More Restaurants closing, some temporarily, due to new Adjusted Level 3 Lockdown: January 2021

Chef Liam Tomlin has posted a popular post, holding a poster detailing the Restaurant industry’s as well as his own restaurants’ plight, stating that he has had to lay off 24 staff, due to no sales of alcohol allowed in restaurants currently. Non-working staff no longer receive the PAYE/TERS benefits which they did for the earlier part of the Lockdown. The Government appears to have no money to pay jobless employees. Ironic about Chef Liam’s poster is that he is growing his restaurant group dramatically, having opened Chefs Warehouse Tintswalo in November, and has just opened Mazza Middle Eastern restaurant, as well as Local, a collection of food suppliers, both operating out of the former HQ. Yet his Chefs Warehouse & Canteen in the same building is not operating currently.

The Restaurant Association’s hashtag campaign of #jobssaveslives and #liftthecurfew on Social Media is weak compared to it actively fighting for the restaurant industry to be able to reopen for Sit-Down Service in Level 4 of Lockdown last year, when only Delivery and Collections of Food were allowed by restaurants.  It is the ban on alcohol sales that is the biggest killer of the restaurant industry currently.

It was the FoodGuru campaign that caught my eye first, and surprised me with its incorrect wording, which flows from the Restaurant Association.

Surprisingly BusinessTech used the same incorrect wording in its headline to a story it wrote about the City of Cape Town’s Alderman James Vos, the City’s Mayoral Committee member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, and his call on the Government to allow longer hours of trading in Cape Town, with a request that the Curfew start at 23h00.

There are another 28 days left for the Restsurabt industry to try to survive the Lockdown regulations of closing at 22h00 and not being able to sell alcohol. On top of that is the Loadshedding too.  I sense that restaurants are losing their fighting spirit, being so overwhelmed by the threatened closure of their businesses almost being inevitable.

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide

About Chris von Ulmenstein