KNYSNA NEWS - Even before the president's address on Monday night when he announced the national lockdown, local businesses were already starting to feel the crunch of patrons avoiding public places at all costs. Harry Yusuf, manager at Rasooie Indian restaurant in Main Street, Knysna, said they had no customers for the past two weeks and that is killing the business.
"Our business depends on tourists, now that there is this Covid-19, we are suffering and if things continue like this we will be forced to fire our workers or maybe close the restaurant," he said.
He added that their business depends on the tourist season but they will be forced to let go of staff, which will increase unemployment.
Question Mark on Main restaurateurs Matt Bronkhorst and Collin du Plessis said they have been receiving cancellations from people whose main reason was they feared Covid-19. "People are cancelling because of their safety. With the restaurants and selling of alcohol closing at 18:00, this has affected our business. But we allow people to come in and get takeaways after 18:00," said Du Plessis. Bronkhorst said they had to cut the staff hours just to accommodate all their staff but that they did not know how they would manage if things got worse.
Ocean Busket manager Shannen Jasser said business was bad and they were not making money. "We have to cut down on everything we stock. We have cut down our tables to 20 and 50 chairs just to limit our customers so that we have less than 100 people in our restaurant.
We are all feeling the impacts of the virus – not just me as the manager but for the staff as there are few people coming in," she said. Jasser added that she was giving her staff as much work as she could so that they could cope in future, should the situation deteriorate. "We wash our hands every 20 minutes but that is not safe because we are exposed to the people from other countries," said Jasser.
Ellen Owen from Olive Tree restaurant in Main Street said the impact of Covid-19 was devastating. "I have 11 staff members, this is their livelihood and I am forced to keep on paying their salaries. Our business depends on tourists as locals are not coming out and all our guesthouses are empty," she said. She will not be able to pay rent this month, she said, and she closed her business on Monday until further notice.
'We bring you the latest Knysna, Garden Route news'
