RebuildSA: Crossfit gym and Durban restaurant start picking up the pieces

On Tuesday 13 July, CrossFit Durban West owner Sarah Raatgever got the call she had been dreading since the violence that ravaged KwaZulu-Natal earlier this month had first begun a few days earlier.

It was one of her members, whose own business is on the same road in New Germany as her gym. “The gym is gone,” he said.

“We both burst into tears,” Raatgever told The Citizen this week, “I didn’t know what it meant – had it been burnt down?”

Fortunately, it hadn’t. But several windows had been smashed in, the roller door had been forced open and much of Raatgever’s equipment – gym equipment like weighted vests and sledge hammers as well as for example her television, her sound system, her coffee machine and her fridge – had been cleared out.

Even her assault bikes – which weigh 40 kgs a piece and are notoriously difficult to move around – were stolen.

One of Raatgever’s members had tried to come and salvage what he could that day but had had to leave after a 900-strong crowd had started approaching and stoning his car. The next day, some members were able to access the premises and remove some of the remaining equipment but so volatile was the situation, Raatgever herself was only able to make it to the premises to assess the damage that Thursday in the end. 

“It was incredibly hard being stuck at home knowing that something I’ve devoted so much of my life to … ” Raatgever – who started CrossFit Durban West alongside one of her friends seven years ago this month – said, before her voice trailed off,

“And then to feel that someone has been in your space – this is my second home – and just had no regard for anything that you’ve worked so hard to build and sacrifice so much for – I feel like I’ve been mourning something”.

With the help of her members and the CrossFit community at large, though, Raatgever said was confident she would be able to recover.

Her members had already stepped in to clean up the gym and she had received offers to help replace equipment as well as financial donations, she said.

She even managed to resume classes last week and described the turnout as “amazing”.

“So I’m okay, I can carry on,” she said, “But if I look around my centre, a lot of these guys won’t be able to reopen again,” she said.

And Raatgever’s experience this month is not unique. Businessmen and women across KwaZulu-Natal all shared similar stories. 

A restaurant owner in the Durban CBD – whose stores were also trashed but asked that his identity not be disclosed, for fear of being further targeted – explained how for 21 years he had poured his blood, sweat and tears into building his business.

“When we started in 2000, I had to go and get two loans. My parents also put up their home in the township  for me to be able to get into the business space,” he said

He got the call to tell him his stores had been breached while he was at home with his wife and children.

“I had to drop what I was doing,” he said.

By the time he arrived, his fridges and freezers were bare. 

He estimates the value of the stock he lost alone at more than R120 000. And then there is the damage that was done to his storefronts and to his fittings and furniture.

He remains optimistic, though, that he will be able to recover.

“It was not a nice feeling seeing young people, middle-aged people, old people looting like that. It hurts and it’s going to take some time to heal,” he said, “But I cannot lose hope now”.