Johannesburg - The management of Maponya Mall in Soweto say they are ready for the influx of people who will be coming to the mall to receive their R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant expected to be rolled out this month.
A portfolio manager at the mall, Howard Kekana, said the centre had seen a spike in the number of patrons since several other malls were looted in Soweto during the unrest that followed the jailing of Jacob Zuma.
The grant was government’s response to the impact of Covid-19 on livelihoods in a country with an unemployment rate of 32.6%. Applications for the grant were expected to open today.
“There is a joint collaboration between us and the South African Social Services Agency (Sassa), so having said that there are over 2 000 chairs that have been allocated and demarcated areas and Sassa will provide a demarcated marquee.
“There’s communication that will take place and marshals, because we don’t want people queueing for extended periods,” he said.
Kekana said plans were in place to ensure social distancing for the large numbers expected to come to the mall to access their R350 grant.
“I am not at liberty to say numbers, but we have flow counters that tell us that there is a substantial increase in terms of people.”
Kekana said he could not give a precise number of people who now come to the mall since the recent looting rampage at malls. Kekana said he did not want to seem to be bragging that the Maponya Mall was still standing.
“It would be insensitive for us if we seem like we are benefiting from the looting of other malls or we are enjoying it, it is important that the other malls also come back on,” Kekana said.
The Star understands that Maponya and Southgate were the malls of preference for people in the looted communities of Soweto.
Reports suggest that Southgate had seen an increase of 11% in the number of patrons since the looting.
Jabulani Mall, which was heavily affected, had opened its Shoprite store to supply the community in that area with essentials.
Social Development spokesperson Lumka Olifant encouraged those who could not access the R350 grant, because of a lack of access to facilities due to the looting and mall destruction, to go to areas where they could access the money.
She said there were several options of accessing the funds, including into a bank account or the post office.
Economist Makwe Masilela said the reintroduction of the R350 grant to the unemployed during this time was a stepping stone towards a basic income grant, especially in a country with a high unemployment rate
“It will be done at some point and R350 will be the start and we also have to make sure that we grow the economy so that government can collect more revenue and they will have money to pay that basic income grant,” Masilela said.
He said the township economy had lost billions of rand from the destruction of malls with the rebuilding process estimated to take between six and 18 months.
The Star