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Heidi Welman, the owner of Xai Xai restaurant on 7th Street in Melville, sits at the counter, frantically working on her computer. She says “today will be a slow day”.
“It is day one of level 4, the first time we are operating after a very long time. On top of that, it is a public holiday,” she says.
“We are just going to be selling pizzas, so right now I am busy with the itemised billing in case we run out of ingredients so that people can just build their pizzas with whatever ingredients we have got.”
Welman adds that, although her restaurant, which is “famous for its pizzas”, has not had a delivery service before, the lockdown has forced her to add this service.
The lockdown, which started on March 27, has seen its first easing, to what government calls level 4.
The introduction of this level has seen some sectors of the economy reopen. This includes food delivery services, but restaurants are not allowed to serve sit-down customers.
“We are not a joint that delivers normally, but now delivery is a service we are going to have to add because we need to keep the business going. “Normally people come in, order and take their food home, or they eat here,” Welman says.
“One of my employees has a car and he came and offered the delivery service using his car and, of course, whatever he makes from the deliveries will remain his. We have to start somewhere and that is where we will start and we will continue with the service even after lockdown. We will use Facebook to make people – our clientele and others – aware of the fact that we will now be delivering.”
With restaurants still having to comply with the social distancing regulations, the Xai Xai owner says she normally has 15 staff members working in the restaurant, but has had to limit the number of people per shift.
“They will rotate,” says Welman, whose business has been operating for more than 10 years.
The sound of motorbikes fills Main Road in Melville with Mr Delivery personnel already at work.
Thirty-year-old Moses Katende is one of the few delivery people waiting for a trip.
Sitting on his stationary motorbike, wearing a face mask and “ready for business”, Katende says he is happy to be back at work.
“Getting my bike up and running after it had not moved for so long was a mission,” he says as he jumps off and looks at the motorbike with pride.
“I had to take it to the mechanic yesterday so I could be ready for today, and now everything is fine.”
According to the father of three, “sitting at home and not earning a salary” was one of his “biggest and most stressful challenges”. He had missed being on the road.
Katende wonders whether he will be making as many deliveries as he used to.
“People have been at home and unable to access takeaways for all this time and I am sure that they have realised that they can survive without it while saving a lot of money, so I am a little worried about that,” he says.
It is now just before 11am and inside Mochachos in Melville, staff are hard at work “cleaning, preparing stock and putting in place all the necessary measures to operate”.
“We haven’t even opened yet, but already our phones have been ringing off the hook,” says an anxious Bheki Nkosi, who manages the fast food outlet.
“We are happy to be in ‘half-business’ because it is better than nothing.”
As he lets out a chuckle, Nkosi explains that he calls it “half-business because we are not operating as per normal. Customers cannot come in for their orders or sit down, so yes.”
Nkosi adds that, like many South Africans, the frustration of not being able to work during the lockdown was taking its toll on him.
“Of course we were worried. All of us. But now we have the opportunity to work and we are grateful.”
Last week, Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel said that a phased reopening of the economy under level 4 of the lockdown would allow restaurants and takeaways to deliver food to customers around the country.
Patel emphasised that reopening the economy too quickly could result in a “rapid rise” of Covid-19 coronavirus infections that would force a return to level 5.
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