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Cape Town’s famous “festive” street, Long Street, is full of lively nightlife and is home to bars, clubs and restaurants.But when the closure was implemented on March 26, Long Street has become strangely quiet at night.
The street has about 160 businesses, basically restaurants, followed by bars and nightclubs, department stores of clothing and footwear, department stores and markets of interest.Informal investors and car guards also earn a living.
According to Tasso Evangelinos, executive director of the Central City Improvement District, an average of 30,000 others visited the city in the middle of the night before the pandemic.Most of them were on Long Street.” This figure can reach 100,000 for special occasions such as the loose jazz concerto.”
Evangelins showed that since the closure, four corporations had permanently closed, the iconic Jo’Burg Bar (which had been in lifestyles for 22 years), the Brownies café.
When we visited the domain just before the rest of the Level 2 regulations came into effect, many outlets were empty or closed.”Closed due to Covid-19″ is read in the symptoms shown in the windows.After 6 p.m., Long Street left, with the exception of some sex workers, other homeless people and visual drug addicts.”He’s dead outdoors in terms of pedestrian traffic,” said Andre Sales, co-director of Clarke Bookstore, which has been on Long Street for 65 years.Years.
Without tourists, Long Street has lost its main source of income.Everlyn Akala, who is co-owner of the African women’s artisan market, estimates that 95% of its sales come from foreign tourists.Akala had to fire some of the staff. The others worked alternately every other day.
Akala had trouble paying rent and utilities, which amounted to about 25,000 rand.The store supplies local women and the economic crisis has forced some to sell their products at particularly low prices.”Some even say I can give them 10 rand, it’s very sad,” Akala said.
The Clarke Bookstore has reduced its hours of operation and wages by 20%.Hiring also shrank, “but the business has to resume,” said Sales, who may not sense the final concept of the bookstore.
They connected online to see how to increase sales, were sent worldwide at level 3 and submitted loose shipments to Cape Town.”We have a mailing list … and we’ve updated our online page so you can place orders smoothly.Sales said.
Jacques Vosloo, co-owner of the prominent record store Mabu Vinyl, also made fewer sales during the lockout, but survived thanks to local consumers and a relief in renting.
Mabu Vinyl has also diversified into deliveries.”We don’t sell by mail, anywhere. But then, since the closure, we promoted in other parts of South Africa,” Vosloo said.
Curfew and ban alcohol hit clubs and restaurants harder.Outside the Blue Bar there is a sign that pronounces coffee and other hot drinks.”We have maybe 3 to 4 coffee consumers a day,” said Victor Moyo, an employee.They closed the profit hole by strengthening their gaming section.
The brewery manager, Prince Gapare, said the bar’s rotation fell between 90% and 15% after the introduction of the alcohol ban.They had survived promoting food in apps such as Mr Delivery and Uber Eats.
Gapare said that while they have tried to sell non-alcoholic beer, “the South African market is not really in a position to do so.”However, a scale at level 3 was still in place, some buyers from seated bars were enjoying what could or would not be comfortable drinks.
Michael Joshua, director of Africana Cafe, also said non-alcoholic beer was not marketable.The café was empty, for Uber Eats drivers who were going to pick up food orders.”We market on social media.”
With restrictions on point two from August 18, alcohol sales are allowed, until 10 p.m.The curfew means that the nightclubs remain closed.Local tourism is allowed, but investors have regretted the loss of foreign travelers.While some suffer the pain of a permanent closure, others retreat to collect the pieces and check their losses.
Asked about the implementation of point two, Gapare said that corporations have shown an improvement “because we can still sell alcohol.”Traffic has also resumed, especially on weekends.But Long Street is known for its past nightlife, and “I hope other people just have to adapt to the new normal,” Gapare said.
According to Sales: “I guess the biggest hope is that there are now a lot of empty storefronts, and that they are robbing small and exciting companies that can just breathe new life on the street.
There are no tourist buses in Soweto that overlook Vilakazi Street.It is the clash of two Nobel laureates: the late Nelson Mandela and the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.It is also the home of Mandela’s legendary activist wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and Hector.Pieterson Memorial site.
The main tourist charm: Casa Mandela at 8115 Vilakazi Street, declared a museum in the 1990s, but has now suffered a monetary blow in the five months since the closure was implemented, when tourism stopped.
South Africa’s transition to the blockade of point 2 two weeks ago would probably have been a little behind for many other people and businesses that rely heavily on tourism for a living along the gigantic tourist strip.
Vilakazi Street had an aura of desolation during the period of lockout.The storefronts have accumulated dust because they have no screens, a marked contrast with the buzz before closing.
The museum, for example, attracted 25,009 foreign visits, 9,254 visits through domestic and regional adults and 3,449 academics and academics between December 2019 and March 2020, but the number was reduced to 0 after the museum closed a few days before the closure..
“The effect on companies has been very brutal and many have been forced to be innovative,” said museum director busisiwe Mahlabe.
For others, the curtain fell on their advertising operations.
The Palace restaurant, which had opened slightly for a month in February before the Level Five blocking rules came into force, had to close.
The effect of the closure restrictions has been felt from the museum and restaurants to the informal sector.
Food dealer Gladys Raulinga, 38, lost 50% of its business.Where he sold at least 10 single roast and papaya dishes a day, he now sells five.
The lifeguard has been the partial reopening of the Office of Interior Affairs at the foot of Vilakazi Street since the start of Level 3.
“Since there are no tourists, my goal is now Orlando Internal Affairs visitors, but it’s not the same,” Raulinga said.
Car guard Kabelo Tafane, 21, changed gears to queue in Home Affairs.”We get up at 3 or 4 in the morning and move on to the queues in Home Affairs.Then we sell our stalls in the queue for a meal or cash.We do the same thing on the banks of the Maponya Mall.”
Céline Mkhabela, owner of Makhelwane restaurant, had to fire the 12 staff members, but retained 4 chefs, who will pay with his own funds.Asked about Level 3 restrictions, Mkhabela said, “No one enters, but I can’t close, the 500 R liquor license for the year must be paid.
Sakhumzi Maqubela, owner of the popular Sakhumzi restaurant, said he had to fire about 90 staff members, with only 20.Maqubela has also provided start-ups with their resources and staff to compete and has created around 900 jobs on Vilakazi Street before Covid-19.
The place to eat survived by converting the configuration of its buffet into quantities of table and encouraged those who craved alcohol to order instead the food sought for Sakhumzi’s soul: classic meals of samp, pap and steamed bread with calluses or hard chicken.”while we remain open, once we are positive about growth again.It may not be easy, but we hope we leave day after day,” Maqubela said.
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