By: Zethu Gweva
Small businesses took a hard knock with the 21-day national lockdown putting all business operations on hold.
Ayabulela Mabinda, 28, from King William’s Town who owns the Black Race Sneaker Wash company said the lockdown has affected his business negatively as the business is faced with a financial crisis.
“Our business pays its bills from daily income. We have recently employed two part-time workers because of the growth and the demand of our business,” he said.
Mabinda added that the recently employed part-time workers went to work twice a week.
“We were forced to put them on unpaid leave as we depend on a day to day profit to cover their pay,” he said.
The national lockdown according to Mabinda is hindering the growth of his business.
“We have a lot of clients requesting our services, new and old clients. But it is not possible for us to meet the demand because we use public transport and work to closer places which are currently prohibited by the government,” he said.
In addition, Mabinda expressed that they have recently introduced delivery scooters but due to the pandemic they cannot operate.
“The Coronavirus outbreak we are faced with and the possible lockdown extension could harm the business terribly. We pray that our businesses will recover from this difficulty,” said Mabinda.