The restrictions brought upon by the lockdown regulations forced many small business owners to rethink their business models in order to keep making a living.
For Mathews Baloyi and thousands of entrepreneurs in the events organisation space, the lockdown presented a nightmare.
Baloyi, who runs Nippy Avenue Events from Protea Glen, Soweto, was forced to innovate to avoid bankruptcy. He changed tactics and focused on coronavirus-related businesses of producing and selling face masks, hand sanitisers, Artemisia afra (lengana in Sotho or umhlonyane in Nguni).
“The business of selling those products had a short lifespan. This is because there was no market for face masks before the pandemic, and then everyone decided to produce and sell them when they lost their jobs,” Baloyi said.
He said he was relieved when the lockdown regulations were eased to level 3, and later level 1, which paved the way for his events business to resume.
But his relief and excitement were short-lived when the government was again forced to tighten regulations due to increasing number of coronavirus cases and overwhelmed healthcare.
“Events are back but it isn’t like before. Government’s regulations have put a hold on alcohol brands from advertising at events because they say it will attract people and cause unnecessary gatherings. So we don’t get sponsorship anymore,” he said.
“This means that events organisers stopped receiving funds from big brands and this left us in a predicament.”
Baloyi said the money he is making now is used to pay off debts accumulated over the past year.
“I used to have a staff complement of 18 people. I’ve had to let go of 12 of those people because I can’t afford to pay all of them. I still struggle to pay the six that are still under my employ,” he said.
Baloyi said Covid-19 instilled fear in people with regards to social gatherings.
“The events industry has lost its value. We used to charge R45,000 a wedding catering for 100 people, but now we charge R20,000,” he said.
Neo Mofokeng, who ran a sewing business out of his garage in Dlamini, Soweto, also moved towards producing masks, while his core business of making traditional garments suffered.
However, his business took a huge knock as traditional events and weddings were suspended by lockdown regulations, meaning there were no customers for his garments.
“[In due course] people stopped buying masks as well. I am actually thinking of closing down my business because I can’t cope.”
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