Just two weeks into the first anniversary of the hard Covid-19 lockdown, Westville business owners say they are slowly getting back on their feet. It’s been over a year since the country was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and South Africa was left in turmoil as businesses had to shut down because of the strict lockdown regulations.
Heidi Devitt, owner of the Pot and Kettle Family Restaurant, said looking back on Lockdown Level 5 and comparing it to now, that things were not so bad as business was picking up. “The business is different, we open five days a week. Our menu was reduced to simpler items. Less items that are pre-cooked. We rather cook to order now,” she said.
Devitt said her business had survived because of the support she received from her loyal customers. “We are very grateful for the public support from the locals. “She said her business was now fully operational. “We hope to see more faces coming in even if it’s just for a cup of coffee. We missed each and every one of our regular clients and we can’t wait to give them the best services we have to offer,” said Devitt.
She said Covid-19 had hit her business really hard as she had to shut down for months during Lockdown Level 5. “This meant that all my staff had to stay home and most of them are parents and breadwinners. We have 20 staff members, including 12 kitchen staff and eight waiters. Things got a little better when government introduced the Covid-Ters, which most of the staff received,” said Devitt.
She said she had to come up with a plan to help the staff survive the pandemic. “We put together food parcels and shared food before we went into lockdown. I assisted the waiters’ families with food parcels as well.” In many cases businesses were forced to retrench staff and to date many are still unemployed as businesses are still suffering the effects of the lockdown.
Devitt said, fortunately, none of her staff members were retrenched. “We did not retrench any staff. I was advised to rather put everyone on a roster and offer them all shifts and go from there, when we re-opened in July 2020. We first opened doing take-aways, where I brought back two waiters to help me man the coffee station. I also added two more staff members to help in the kitchen to prepare take-aways as no sit-in patrons were permitted at that time.” However, Devitt was overcome with sadness during the pandemic when a long-serving staff member, her gardener, died.
“My gardener died during this pandemic, even though we cannot confirm whether he succumbed to the virus as he was an HIV patient for the past 18 years. He was also diagnosed with TB at some stage, which was really bad. He fell ill before lockdown and passed away during lockdown. That was a very very, sad time in my life as he had worked for me for 20 years.”
