Covid-19 Business Relief Fund assists over 250 businesses in the Western Cape

Today (21 January 2021), I am pleased to announce that through the Covid-19 Business Relief Fund, we have distributed R38 268 000 to 252 small businesses across the Western Cape, saving at least 2,000 jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

We launched the Covid-19 Business Relief Fund in September last year to support small businesses in both the formal and informal sectors who have been hard-hit by Covid-19 restrictions.

And today, I had the pleasure to visit three of the businesses who were recipients of these funds. 

Bodyline Coachworks is a youth-owned business based in Killarney Gardens that employs 11 people and provides auto body repairs and motor repair services, K9 Petfoods is a women-owned business based in Montague Gardens that employs 50 people and provides pet food to some of the biggest retailers in South Africa, and Eat Smart is also a women-owned business in Montague Gardens employing 14 people and providing healthy ready-made meals to retailers across South Africa. 

Each of these businesses has seen their operations impacted in some way by Covid-19, whether staff have been ill or had to self-quarantine, their supply chain has been impacted by delays at the Port of Cape Town or the market has been negatively impacted by the lockdown restrictions. 

However, what each of these businesses has shown is great resilience in the face of these challenges, and so I’m glad that through the Covid-19 Business Relief Fund we’ve been able to help these businesses stay open and save jobs in the Western Cape.

The fund has provided financial assistance in the form of a financial grant to these businesses, with the purpose of subsidising business expenses such as fixed costs, operational costs, supplier debt and other pressure cost items.

The Western Cape Covid-19 Business Relief Fund is one of the many ways that we have worked hard to support small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We know that times have been tough for businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that is why, from the start we have been working hard to support businesses, especially small businesses, to open safely and responsibly, so we can save jobs and save the economy in the Western Cape. 

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