Complaints about bad spelling, prices help to close CT food business down

A Cape Town businessman got himself into a little trouble with authorities after he thought he found a clever way to keep his 23 staffers employed during the country’s national lockdown.

JP Scholtz got himself a permit to produce meals for four.

Meals would be ordered by phone or via WhatsApp from a pared-down menu of comfort food, such as cottage pie. An avocado caprese for four would be R230 and whole roast chicken with potatoes and vegetables would be R275.

His argument was that it would be handed to the buyer with hardly any physical contact, compared to venturing out to a supermarket and coming into contact with shelves of items that were previously handled by strangers.

After he was cleared to continue with his idea, he arranged travel permits for his staffers.

The menu was published on the social media page of The Lawns at the Roundhouse in Camps Bay.

But the backlash was swift. There was a litany of complaints over the spelling of “babotjie” (bobotie) and the price of a chicken pie for four (R140). Before long, there were questions over how his business was an essential service.

Scholtz ended up explaining himself to the police and representatives of the Department of Trade and Industry.

“They were very nice about it,” he told News24.

They told him that his problem was that his company, under normal circumstances, had a liquor licence.

This meant his business was not a delicatessen, which would have given him the right to sell the food.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Scholtz said.

He said his staff members were getting paid during the lockdown. People in the catering business usually tried to find a way of putting away something extra to tide themselves over the lean winter months. This would have helped.

Instead, Scholtz’s nest egg is an industrial quantity of pies, stews, casseroles and curries, now in the freezer.

The fresh ingredients that were not used were given to staff who also had to return home.

Scholtz said traders like himself were hoping for a phased-in approach in which they will be able to sell their wares, but during reduced or stipulated hours.

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