JOHANNESBURG - The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday called on municipalities and landlords to grant property owners and tenants breathing space by suspending payments during a 21-day lockdown in South Africa to curb the spread of Covid-19, saying this would take pressure off small business already hit hard by the impact of the pandemic.
The chamber made the call on the first day of a national exercise in which all people in South Africa are compelled to stay at home until April 16 - barring health workers in the public and private sectors, emergency personnel and those in security services - in a bid to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, with the number of confirmed cases jumping to more than 1,000.
In a statement, Cape Chamber president Geoff Jacobs said rates and rents were a substantial cost of doing business, and with all non-essential businesses being forced to close during the lockdown, continuing to pay them "will be the nail in the coffin of many small enterprises".
"Many will be forced to shed staff as the only way to survive, if survival is at all possible,” he said.
“I am not calling for a write-off of debts for municipal services or for landlord rents, but I am asking the city of Cape Town in particular, and municipalities elsewhere in the province, to recognize that they must share the economic burden the lockdown is imposing."
He said it was in everyone's interests - after the pandemic - for there still to be a small, medium and micro-enterprises sector able to play its vital role in providing employment and helping to grow the economy.
"Stellenbosch municipality has shown the way," Jacobs said.
"The city of Cape Town has the resources and should set an example to other major cities by doing the same."