Busy Corner Mall shut down following peaceful march

The newly opened Busy Corner Mall was temporarily shut down on Thursday afternoon following a peaceful march to hand over a memorandum of grievance to the mall owners over the mall’s conduct.

The march was led by the chairperson of the Region A Business Forum, Terrance Dzeli, who handed over the document to Andries Tlouamma, one of the co-owners of the mall.

Terrance Dzeli said the reason for the march was that the community wanted fair equal opportunities but they were given empty promises.

“There are sub-constructors that are owed, once they are owed it means that there are labourers owed too. The locals have to be given the opportunities they were promised, from the cleaning local companies to security companies.

“The communities should not be the end users of the product, they must participate in the mainstream of the economy because these malls happen to consume the resources of the community, there are schools which achieved over 90 per cent pass rate but they never benefit.”

Part of the memorandum reads, “Undermining with arrogance efforts by the local business stakeholders to create a platform to discuss opportunities and exclusive participation on the mall for local labour, local tenants and local service providers.

“Opportunities for local retailers and payment for all our local contractors that were not paid. Local community should be given permanent employment and the mall should hire local security companies and cleaning companies.

“Maintenance should be done by local companies, we cannot have two entertainment areas opposite each other within a 300 metre radius.”

Mish Mdlalose, leader of the South African Communist Party in Johannesburg region, said the issue here is that the mall owners did not follow the rules of the so-called ‘fixed-term contract’.

“The fixed-term contract says after three months, people should be made permanent on the positions hired to occupy but that was not the case, instead half of the employees who were hired here are released from duty and we are saying let them be reinstated.

“We are advocating for the people of Ebony Park, Ivory Park and Tembisa to be hired in this mall at a majority rate because it is within their precinct.”

Andries Tlouamma, Busy Corner Mall co-owner, said they accept the memorandum and acknowledge the document which they will find ways to respond to it in time.

“We understand that we operate in the community and there must be peace between the community and the mall business operators.

“This is a loss to us, hence we had to temporarily shutdown the business. Every minute equals to a loss, we are losing customers,” added Tlouamma.