Aneesa Hendricks has made the most of the toughest lockdown restrictions and kept the family’s fruit and vegetable business going, even when it seemed like an impossible task.
Hendricks and her husband Faizel moved their fruit and veg stall from the Gatesville Market to their Eagle Road home in Gleemor in Athlone in April 2020. At that time the market was closed due to lockdown restrictions and the couple believed trading from home was the best option.
“We traded there for two months at our home out of the garage... and then law enforcement came to shut us down.
“They showed up and said they would confiscate our things if we didn’t close, and we couldn’t have them confiscate our stuff. They came three days in a row and by the third day they said they would take our things and then we said okay we will just close and won’t open again,” Hendricks said.
The couple didn’t trade for nearly two months after that incident, but Hendricks said things soon changed for the better.
“It was only until we could apply for Covid-19 trading permits that we started up again. But, even that was a struggle at the market, even though my husband has been there for almost 20 years.
“After a long hassle of proving that it was our stand in Gatesville, they gave us the Covid-19 permit to trade,” she said.
Being back at the Gatesville Market came with new challenges.
“It was very quiet in the beginning, in June... people were scared to leave their houses and we could see how people treated us as well. They wouldn’t put the money in your hand when they were paying you, they would almost throw the money at you - because they didn’t want to touch your hand,” Hendricks said.
She said rumours that the market was a super spreader of Covid-19 didn’t help their business. “Things have gotten better since people started coming more and more. There was a problem because there were rumours last year that Gatesville was the worst with Covid and it wasn’t true, so that scared people.”
The cost of living increased and so did food prices, which also put added pressure on their profit margins.
She said: “Getting the supplies was easy, but food prices have been increasing, simple things like cauliflower, broccoli and tomatoes...tomatoes was very expensive and even a few weeks ago it was R200 a box of tomatoes. We’d be selling three small tomatoes for R10 just to make a profit out of it.”
During these tough times, Hendricks remains positive about the business and being able to not only serve the community, but provide them with fresh fruit and vegetables which also makes a positive impact.
She said: “Since Covid-19 many of the people in Manenberg have been unemployed and where we could help, we did. We have increased our staff since last year and we now have 15 people working at our stand in Gatesville.”
The couple have also discussed their future plans.
“We want to grow the business and have started talking about supplying fruit and veg to stores on a big scale,” she said.