Pretoria - The decision by executive mayor Randall Williams to pull the plug on serving free lunch during events organised by the City will negatively affect small businesses in the catering sector.
This was the sentiment shared by service providers, who were recently contracted to feed the homeless at the temporary shelters set up by the government in a bid to ward off the spread of Covid-19.
Speaking on their behalf, Emmanuel Makuwa expressed disappointment at the sudden decision to get rid of food caterers, saying it would definitely affect their livelihood.
“Obviously that is going to affect our business because, as caterers, we had the City of Tshwane as our biggest client. Not like we were entirely depending on the City for business, but it was our biggest client because there are always long meetings and caucus meetings,” Makuwa said.
He said the decision might flout a three-year catering contract signed between the service providers and the City.
The contract, according to Makuwa, had at least two years left before its expiry.
The service providers intended to engage with Williams soon to receive clarity regarding what was likely to happen to their contracts.
“The announcement means that our contract will be terminated. We have to find out from the mayor if our contract will be cancelled or what is going to happen to it.”
Williams announced his intention to stop catering food at City events including council meetings, when he unveiled his mayoral committee last week.
He said the idea behind the decision was to cut cost, which could contribute to putting the municipality in a stable financial position.
“Free lunches are over. No matter the length of the meeting or the formality of the engagement the City will not be purchasing food,” Williams said.
He said events and conferences would have their budgets reduced and channelled to core service delivery.
“Where possible all such engagements will happen either in Tshwane House or online,” he said.
When asked whether he considered the impact of the decision on small businesses, Williams said companies should learn to run like proper businesses and be able to sustain themselves without the metro’s assistance.
Pretoria News