Former Orlando Pirates captain and Bafana Bafana defender Lucky Lekgwathi was forced to move his restaurant to a new location after it was looted and destroyed during the July 2021 riots.
The establishment was one of scores of businesses targeted during the violent riots from which many have never recovered.
Lekgwathi this week described the week-long July 2021 unrest as a devastating moment in which his newly founded Grootman by Lucky Lekgwathi restaurant in Kliptown, Soweto, was looted.
The restaurant, which neighboured an informal settlement, was left nearly empty with only broken appliances inside after a night of looting.
“Those were the darkest times for small businesses in South Africa.
“I walked to the shop to see if it was also impacted. I had hoped that it wasn’t because I believed black people support each other.
“When I got there, I found people still taking whatever there was left, including electricity cables and some soccer ornaments I had at the restaurant. I was heartbroken and I just let them take whatever because I also feared for my life,” said Lekgwathi.
Being a prominent ex-footballer, the community and friends united days after the incident to donate money and repair damages incurred during the unrest.
“I was going through a challenging time in my life because the restaurant had opened the same year and I was still looking for profits. Then everyone came through for me and raised around R100 000. Some came and offered to help repair any broken thing at the restaurant.
“My partner and I then managed to crawl back up but it was never the same. We could not hold on to our employees, so we had to transfer them to Jimmy’s restaurant, now also re-branded to Grootman.”
Lekgwathi later moved his establishment from Soweto out of fear of another unrest or similar incidents.
He then opened a new restaurant in Southdale, Joburg. He said the decision was motivated by the unity of the community as they had safely guarded their local businesses during the unrest.
“After all, the July unrest was a blessing in disguise for us because we have grown so much better after we left Soweto. It made us realise that even
people here buy platters instead of R10 chips. We are now a franchise. The unrest opened our eyes,” he said.
Lipuo Mokoena, a fish and chips owner also based in Soweto, said their business was looted and left with nothing but broken tables and chairs.
The business survived through an insurance payout and support from friends, family and the community.
“People don’t understand that it is important to have businesses insured. They [the insurance] really came in handy during this devastating time. We are glad that we are back on our feet,” said Mokoena.
Diepsloot Chamber of Business director Phineas Letsoalo said the instability and looting during the July unrest disadvantaged Soweto businesses – some were almost permanently closed.
He said there was a need, three years after the unrest, to still understand the true root cause of failure for businesses that had to shut doors.
“A more targeted study is required to truly understand the key factors that resulted in the almost total collapse of the SMME sector in townships, such as Diepsloot.
“Diepsloot chamber was badly affected as many of the members are small entrepreneurs such as street vendors, one man construction business and so forth. Any changes in the business equilibrium spells disaster for the programmes of the chamber movement.”
