Restaurant industry calls on govt to revisit restrictions on venue capacity

The Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa) wants government to revisit restrictions placed on restaurants and hotels.

It’s proposing that businesses be allowed to operate at 50% venue capacity instead of 50 people maximum.

Fedhasa chair Rosemary Anderson said although it’s essential to contain the spread of Covid, some of the bigger businesses, currently hanging by a thread, also need to operate under financially viable restrictions.

Anderson’s comments came after Stats SA revealed that business liquidations increased by 46.2 % in the second quarter of 2021, a 30.7% jump compared with this time last year.

Fedhasa said the current regulations put larger establishments out of pocket because it’s not worth operating with fewer patrons.

“Unfortunately, the rules are not feasible for bigger restaurants,” said Anderson.

“An average Spur can seat 350 patrons, and some of the Spurs can accommodate up to 600 patrons. It doesn’t make financial sense for a restaurant this size to operate with a [maximum] of 50 patrons.”

Easing venue capacity restrictions could be a lifeline for businesses amid indefinite and varying levels of lockdown restrictions.

She added South Africa’s vaccination roll-out had been slow and the discovery of new variants in recent months would undoubtedly complicate efforts to restore economic activity to pre-Covid levels.

“There are hotels, employing thousands and they have been closed since March last year because their target market is international tourists,” said Anderson.

She added that the vaccination process needed to be accelerated to remove South Africa from international travel red lists.

Fedhasa is not the only association calling for a review of trading restrictions. SA Breweries (SAB) said 22 weeks of alcohol sales prohibition (calculated over four bans) put 233 000 jobs at risk and cost R10.2 billion in excise tax. SAB has reiterated its call for notice before shutting down the industry.

The brewery’s president of corporate affairs, Zoleka Lisa, criticised government’s approach, saying “with immediate effect” is just plain irresponsible considering over one million livelihoods are put on the chopping block whenever a ban is instituted.

“It shows a disregard for the people working in this industry,” she said.

– narissas@citizen.co.za