Small business feels the strain of Covid-19

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his executive received backing from business leaders yesterday who committed to working with the government in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Ramaphosa met with several leaders at the Union Buildings in Pretoria yesterday as part of a series of meetings he has held with various stakeholder constituencies including communities of faith and the nation’s political leadership.

Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel said the meeting was to consolidate a single approach to the economy in order to take into account the needs of the vulnerable and consumers.

“We gave a report on what the government is doing to monitor the impact of the global slowdown on our economy because we sell goods to other parts of the world,” said Patel.

Whether it is social distancing, self-isolating, staying away from work and trying not to be the person spreading the virus, it’s the small businesses that are taking the knock and having to think on their feet.

Small Business Institute CEO John Dludlu said recently South Africa’s small businesses were in a perpetual state of disaster planning.

“Whether it is excessive red tape, trying to extract payment from big suppliers, Eskom’s blackouts and now the uncertainty of disruption caused by Covid-19, SMEs just cannot get a break,” Dludlu said.

“Small businesses make up 98.5% of the firms in our country and we are relying on them to make a dent in the unimaginable unemployment levels. Without them, we have no hope of inclusive economic growth.

“We, therefore, call on the government and big business to consider how they can assist SMEs in the event the coronavirus hits South Africa hard, causing customers to stay home, employees to need paid leave and supply lines to be disrupted.”

Jack Landen, owner of Spilt Milk Social Café in Melville, Johannesburg, said desperate times called for desperate measures in the form of donations to keep the business afloat.

“My main concern right now is my staff and the safety of our customers. Unlike many of us, our staff don’t have the luxury of self-isolating for several weeks and our little business lives week by week if not day by day,” he said.

As of yesterday, a little more than R8,000 had been raised on Landen’s Go Get Funding platform under Spilt Milk, Melville – Coronavirus Plea for Help.

The Fin and Fillet Grill in Edenvale is another small business which has had to change its business model in order to stay afloat. According to manager Tinashe Mak, the usually flourishing business had taken a knock ever since the new regulations were announced and numbers had been dwindling.

The restaurant is now offering free delivery within a 7km radius. In this way Mak expects the business to come out of the other end of the ban on crowds and social gatherings.

And while Uber Eats is a multinational conglomerate, each car driving around taking people their food represents a small business by itself.

Uber spokesperson Samantha Allenberg said: “We’ve started educating users about how to request deliveries be left on their doorstep and we have waived the delivery fee on orders from 11am to 2pm on weekdays.

“Uber will compensate drivers and delivery people when proper documentation shows they have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, if they are placed in quarantine, or removed from the app for up to 14 days at the direction of a public health authority.”

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