Restaurant Owners Across SA Protest In Bid To Save Industry

Restaurant owners are hoping that their pleas have not fallen on deaf ears.

The restaurant industry across the country took to the streets to highlight the hardships facing the sector on Wednesday.

They want the government to relax the current lockdown regulations, specifically the curfew and liquor ban.

The coronavirus lockdown has debilitated businesses in the Western Cape’s small towns that rely on holidaymakers to keep going.

A number of restaurants in these towns lined the streets with empty tables and chairs as they participated in the ‘million seats on the street’ protest.

In Paternoster, restaurant owner at Gaaitjie, Valmé Olivier, said that she had been forced to lay off some staff.

“The trading just went down by like 60%. We feel we need to get our voices heard to lift these regulations.”

In Franschhoek, owner at French Connection Bistro, Matthew Gordon, said that his restaurant has been closed for the past four months. He said that if regulations were not relaxed soon, the consequences would be devastating.

“Massive job losses, business closures, it really is in a very, very, very precarious situation now. Without engagement from government we are doomed.”

The Restaurants Association of South Africa (Rasa) handed over a memorandum to the Tourism Minister during the protest in Parkhurst in Gauteng yesterday.

EWN