Durban - KwaZulu-Natal business owners, who saw their businesses go up in smoke during the July unrest are still trying to come to terms with their losses a year after the chaos that gripped the province.
Two Pietermaritzburg entrepreneurs have spoken of their anguish after seeing their hard work destroyed during the mayhem last year.
Busi Nodada, the owner of Lady Love Design, a fashion shop at the Greater Edendale Mall, said it was still hard to come to terms with what happened to her business last year.
She recalled that she had started operating at the mall in February 2019 and started seeing the impact of trading at a big shopping centre.
“When I arrived in February that year, I was using somebody’s office, and later in the year got my own space and from then things started to take shape. I was designing and selling more items,” she explained.
She described the feeling of making more than R100 000 in October 2019 as the greatest thrill of her life.
Nodada, who is from Imbali township, said the last two months of 2019 were equally rewarding as she was generating in excess of R80 000 each month.
The business owner said she had been anxious about being inactive owing to the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, and was grateful when some of the restrictions were lifted by the government later that year as it allowed her and other traders to get back to business.
“Business in 2021 was difficult because at the start of the year, people focus on taking their kids to school, so there is not a lot of money to spend, and so we experience a dip in sales.
“Covid-19 was the first time for all of us. Luckily, the mall management was equally understanding when it came to rent, and so we navigated that difficult period,” the shop owner said.
Remembering the Sunday in July in which her business, along with others at the mall, was looted and torched, Nodada said it had been an ordinary day, and she had gone about making dresses. She worked until late at the shop.
“Because when I am in the zone, the work just continues without any attention to the time. It only dawned on me later that it had gone dark, so I went home not knowing that this would be the last time that my shop was still intact,” she added, battling to control her tears.
When her daughter woke her on Monday morning telling her that the mall had been torched, she rushed to the scene to see for herself.
“There was writing on the wall reading ‘Busi Free Zuma’, which gave me a sense that those who destroyed my shop knew me. That sight of my store reduced to ashes left a wound that will not heal any time soon,” Nodada said.
Despite the setback, the fashion designer is back in business, although on a smaller scale, and has vowed to return to the mall one day.
Sabelo Vilakazi, who had three businesses at the same mall, expressed a sense of betrayal, especially from the government, saying no help had been given to them following their losses.
“I am drained by what happened because some of the people who participated in the looting spree had been my patrons,” said Vilakazi.
He told of how he had worked for more than 10 years raising capital in order to build his business, which included an entertainment lounge and a financial services outlet.
“I am talking about losses of R11 million that I suffered on that day. I will never forget the people of Edendale for what they did.
“Talking about that episode just leaves me drained.”
Meanwhile, the Greater Edendale Mall is set to reopen at the end of August, and according to centre manager Phakamani Khumalo, construction is in line with the set target.
“The reopening will be phased in, so you will have one part opening while the rebuilding continues in other parts of the centre,” Khumalo said. He pointed out that tenants were equally eager to see the reopening.