Joburg’s Cyrildene turning into ghost town over virus fears

South Africa might still be free of the coronavirus that has killed over 2,500 and infected over 79,000 in China and other parts of the world, but the effects are beginning to be felt.

Chinese shops in the country are increasingly deserted, including restaurants and coffee shops at Johannesburg’s Chinatown in Cyrildene, as people avoid areas populated by Chinese people.

South African shops that rely on Chinese imports are on the verge of running out of stock as imports are subjected to quarantine.

Aidan van Vuuren, who runs Smartphonesho.co.za, said the coronavirus had heavily affected the availability of products and that by this month they had sold 80% of their stock.

“The coronavirus emerged just as Chinese New Year wrapped up, so we were not able to get stock out of China for more than a month. We have also been told by our suppliers the situation has got even worse over the last week and they do not know when they will be able to replenish their own stock,” he said.

A man wearing a face mask walks in Chinatown in Cyrildene, 25 February 2020. Picture: Neil McCartney

Van Vuuren said they had got a small amount of stock from China, which landed at the weekend after being in quarantine for two weeks.

“Our freight forwarders were really surprised we got some stock out of China as apparently most other people aren’t able to.”

Despair is palpable in Cyrildene, the area east of Johannesburg city centre, with Chinese shop owners flatly refusing to speak about the effect of corononavirus on business.

But staff said customers had been dwindling and business nosediving since the outbreak last December.

One waitron said it had never been this quiet since she started working there almost three years ago. “Only local Chinese people are trickling in,” she said.

Several Chinese people were wearing masks, but John Cui, a Chinese immigrant living in Cyrildene, said Chinese people wear masks to prevent flu.

“So it is difficult to say it is because of the coronavirus. There are less people on the street than before in this town and that is the case with Chinese shops across the city.”

Gavin Britz, 27, who lives near Chinatown, said it was slowly turning into a ghost town.

Kennny Mbombi, who guards cars in the area, said: “Every day there are less people.”

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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