Families fall on hard times as unemployment rate surges
One of many South Africans who suffered a great economic loss is Cassandra Fraser who together with her husband, Iain, have been forced to close their business due to the effects of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
THE Covid-19 outbreak has come with a whirlwind of chaos and uncertainty, with job losses and financial strains at the centre of the storm – one that president Cyril Ramaphosa has referred to as a ‘job loss tsunami’.
According to a survey conducted by Statistics South Africa in May, 8.1 per cent of respondents reported that they had lost their jobs or had to close their businesses and 1.4 per cent became unemployed, according to the Wave 2 survey on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment and income in South Africa. Fast forward to July, the unemployment rate in South Africa has soared to 30 per cent as a result of the Covid-19. According to the national treasury, unemployment may surge to 50 per cent in the worst case scenario.
One of many South Africans who suffered a great economic loss is Cassandra Fraser who together with her husband, Iain, have been forced to close their business due to the effects of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
The couple, who reside on the Bluff, ran a mobile bar business, called Dark Side of the Brew, at many festivals, events as well as had their Gin and Tonic on tap at several restaurant chains. They are well known in and around Durban and had established a solid clientele for themselves. Cassandra is also a musician and performed at several events, bars and restaurants over the weekends.
“After the first speech from the president where he announced the limit on gatherings of over 100 people and that restaurants couldn’t serve alcohol after 6pm, we lost every single event and my music gigs planned for the next weeks after that announcement were cancelled. Restaurants also stopped ordering from us. Our lives turned upside down literally overnight. We had no pre-warning and other big and annual events for the rest of the year were cancelled,” said Cassandra, who was upset by hard hit her industry was.
She said she felt that everything happened with immediate effect and that there was little they could do to avoid the loss they have incurred.
“If we were given some kind of warning we could have tried to save a bit more money.”
“Our business was very successful and we had a really good lifestyle, working weekends only which allowed us all week at home with our boys. Now it has all just come crumbling down. I sobbed for about the first week because I didn’t know what we were going to do. We started considering our options, like going back to our original professions before becoming entrepreneurs. But even those industries aren’t hiring at the moment. People are getting laid off and getting retrenched,” she said.
The couple has not had an income over the past few months and have started liquidating most their assets, by selling off some of their bar equipment. “We built the business on our own over the last three years. It took us years to get us to this point. If we had to start all over again, we wouldn’t even know where to begin. We’re just living day by day currently. We just don’t know what to do,” shared the mother of two boys aged one and two years old.
They Fraser’s are considering immigrating to Australia, as her husband and sons have citizenship to reside there as their last option in order to have a chance at a decent life. She admits that adjusting to life during a pandemic as a mother has been difficult.
“The boys are so oblivious to what is happening. We can’t take them out anymore and you can see that it is impacting them too, being stuck in the house. It’s been hard on them too. Leading up to this life was very good, we were working and doing something we love. This pandemic has certainly taught us to plan ahead a bit better and be more prepared for the unknown and just appreciate everything.”
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