South Africa News

Restaurant industry still in very dark waters, says Rasa

As alcohol sales return to normal again, the Restaurant Association of South Africa said that owners were still trying to keep their heads above water.

President Cyril Ramaphosa this week announced that trading hours for alcohol sales would return to normal, which includes weekends.

The association noted this move but said that at this stage, the industry was facing a number of challenges as it had been hit hard financially over the past few months.

The restaurant association’s Wendy Alberts said that owners were currently trying to keep staff employed and were having challenges with the UIF Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme, as restaurants were not in a position to pay full salaries while staff were on short time.

“We are appealing to landlords to revise the leases. While they perceive the industry to be busy, the industry is still under a huge depression.”

She said that the government needed to sit down with the industry and look at mechanisms to find a recovery plan.

Alberts said that the sector was in desperate need of funding and said that the government had ignored the industry, leaving them to find ways to survive on their own.

“We are looking for funding in order to sustain ourselves. We’ve got to be talking to the landlords, we’ve got to be talking to the bank, UIF… we still haven’t had TERS payment for the foreigners, it’s a massive challenge.”

Alberts said that with the holiday season drawing closer, she questioned what the industry would be left with thereafter.

“We’re still in very, very dark waters and restaurants and iconic tourism spots have had to close down as they haven’t been able to sustain themselves to the point where they can’t even go through the holiday season… a lot of people have lost their jobs.”

-EWN

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