Restaurants urge President Ramaphosa to relax lockdown rules

The South African Restaurant industry has pleaded with the government to review and ease the current lockdown regulations and to save businesses which are struggling to survive during the severely restricted trading hours.

Restaurant Association CEO Wendy Alberts said the sector was calling for restrictions to be lifted further “with immediate effect”.

“The Restaurant Association Of South Africa is urgently requesting a review by President Ramaphosa and his newly appointed cabinet to consult and furthermore make the responsible decisions to imminently lift the restrictions on our restaurant Industry,” Alberts said in a statement.

“Despite several and ongoing pleas for relief and compensation, the South African government, the cabinet and the Minister of Tourism has failed to assist the requests for debt deferment for restaurants. We will continue to call on the relief of loans and leases,” she said.

Albets said affected businesses were still sitting with a vast amount of staff members at home on unpaid layoffs with no immediate relief from the Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).

“We have highlighted the amount of restaurants that have closed and the hardship and suffering the restrictions have financially caused our industry along side thousands who have lost their jobs,” she said.

“Covid numbers are well below the anticipated numbers that hold history to keeping the country in adjusted Level 3. The vaccination roll is growing daily and meeting governments numbers. We as a restaurant industry will continue to ensure that we prioritise that the health and protocols of our restaurants are followed,” she said.