WATCH: Restaurant sector’s desperate cry for help in nationwide protests
Several streets were closed in Cape Town as restaurants highlighted their plight in the “Million seats on the streets” and #JobsSaveLives protests, which were held countrywide from noon to 2 pm today.
They put out their tables and chairs on pavements or in the street, with staff lining up and holding up placards amid the desperate cry for help by the industry’s 800 000 staff members whose jobs are on the line.
The police had warned restaurants beforehand that their planned mass protest action will be illegal, with officers seen removing tables and chairs placed in the Cape Town CBD, while streets had to be closed in the CBD and Camps Bay, among others.
A Jerry’s employee in Observatory, Cape Town, Jeffrey, said: “We are doing this campaign to save our jobs and to save the lives of our children. We ask everyone around the world to join this campaign.
The Touch of Madness owner in Observatory said: “Obviously we are in the same predicament in terms of what’s happening. The initiative #JobsSavesLives is really trying to highlight how we as an industry are suffering.
“At my place, I have got 22 people whose jobs are at risk, my business is at risk and around me, we have already had six restaurants that have shut their doors… Unless we can trade normally, we are never going to get back into business again.“
It is one of the sectors hit hardest by the government’s Covid-19 lockdown regulations and they requested that all who work in the industry, who are patrons, suppliers or simply want to lend support to an industry on the brink of collapse take a stand.
The Restaurant Association of SA (RASA) and liquor traders were expected to meet Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane today to hand over a memorandum, imploring the lockdown restrictions on restaurants be eased.
RASA, the National Liquor Traders Council and the Liquor Traders Association of SA also wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking him to meet them to discuss the “dire” state of the industry.
It is seeking legal advice on what action to take against the government’s new regulations, based on the damages brought about through non-performance, liquor sales restrictions and the new curfew rules from 9 pm.
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