Security tight at reopening of Alex’s Freedom store
ALEXANDRA – Luis Freitas says hiring staff on rebuilding work was their way of thanking them for their loyal service over many years.
The more than 170 staff compliment of Freedom Supermarket that worked at the store before the July looting mayhem was all retained in the current reopened store.
This was confirmed by store manager Luis Freitas during an interview with Alex News at the store reopening on November 22 after five months of a rebuilding exercise of the badly burnt down outlet at the Pan Africa Mall that has serviced the community of Alexandra for the past 29 years.
Freitas said most of them were involved in the rebuilding work and as such never lost any income. “We saw it fit to hire them as well labourers and on other positions within the compliment of rebuilding workers that were working on the project,” he said.
Freitas said they were quite happy as a business to have managed to keep their workers on an income despite the hardship they experienced as a business. “I guess this too was our way of saying thank you to them for their loyal service to Freedom Supermarket over many years,” he added.
Security was tight at the reopening and Alex News editor, Sipho Siso, felt its presence as the guys would not take his word of mouth and familiar face for granted as he had dealt with them on numerous occasions leading up to the reopening.
“They kept wanting to know what I was doing with the camera and photographing customers as they went about with shopping from shelf to shelf and at till points. I had to keep telling them I had been granted permission to come to do publicity work for the opening and to take pictures in the shop,” he told overzealous security personnel.
