Thebo Mhlongo was the sole breadwinner for his family of eight last year when severe weather struck the Mariner's Seafood Restaurant and Shipwreck Pub on KwaZulu-Natal's south coast, effectively destroying their livelihoods.
Mr Mhlongo, 32, is one of 65 employees and 12 hawkers who relied on restaurants for income until the huge abnormal wave hit South Africa's east and west coasts. It caused severe damage as far as Cape Town. Improvements will be made to farmland and road infrastructure in September 2023.
As a result of the marina's restaurant workers losing their jobs, more than 470 families lost their income and were forced to rely on child support and senior citizen subsidies to survive.
The Ley Nkonyeni Municipality owns and manages the building. The building is located in the Admiralty Reserve, a strip of land approximately 45 to 60 meters wide, located inland from the high water mark and owned by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
Mariners owner John Caple this week asked the city and city manager Keta Zulu to fix up the building and grant him a five-year lease so he could invest between R3 million and R5 million. Despite repeated pleas, the restaurant remains closed, he said. Your pockets will open up again.
Caple said he took over the restaurant in 2017 under a previous five-year lease, which expired in August 2022 and became a month-to-month lease. All coastal restaurants in the municipality, also on month-to-month leases, were invited to bid for long-term leases in August 2023.
“Then, in mid-September, a wave came in and wiped out our restaurant. We couldn't work on it at all,” Caple said.
He said rebuilding and reopening made no business sense while he was on a month-to-month lease, but said the municipality refused to intervene and told him to wait for the outcome of the bidding process.
He said the city announced in November 2023 that the bidding process would be canceled due to flaws and restart in January 2024, but that did not happen.
Mr Kaple said the city had insured the building and promised to repair it, which he said was estimated to cost between R300,000 and R500,000.
“I said OK because I was willing to fix the building if I was willing to rebuild the restaurant,” Caple said, adding that “in good faith” he continued to pay the rent for six months until March 2024. added.
“We have not received any assistance from the local government in terms of cleaning up or anything like that, and we have had very little communication from the local government. We have sent hundreds of emails,” he said.
Caple later proposed to City Administrator Zulu that if the city would sign a five-year lease, he would repair the building at his own expense and pay five years' rent in advance.
“He just laughed at me and said that would never happen,” Caple said.
Thirteen months later, the building is dilapidated and derelict, guarded by a private security guard hired by the city.
Caple has said he intends to negotiate a five-year lease for the restaurant investment so his staff can return to work.
Mr Mhlongo, a former head chef in the main kitchen, said his part-time job only allowed him two days a week and that even with the child support subsidy, it was not enough to support his large family.
“I don't know where to start. It has affected me to this day. Eighty percent of the population [staff] It's not working yet, but no one cares. It’s such a disaster,” he said.
“Most people rely on subsidies to feed their children and we struggle to buy groceries with that money.The former owners want the place and what they need is local government. There's no one else to take over the place as it is. To this day, he's fighting to get our job back.”
Former kitchen manager Lindokufre Maliche, 32, said losing his job was the biggest tragedy of his life, as his wife had just given birth to their first child when the disaster occurred.
Maliche said he had found work in an unrelated field, but out of concern for his former colleague, he wrote to KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Public Works and Infrastructure Martin Meyer asking for intervention. That's what it means.
“I wrote the letter with the hope that if we can reopen restaurants, at least those people will be able to survive and make a living like everyone else,” Mariche said. spoke.
“I know that 80 percent of them weren't working and the majority were the breadwinners of the household. So even if I'm busy, if they're not working, that's a big deal for me. I don’t like it.”
Mandy Massey, president of the Southern Explorers Association, said the restaurant is a coastal “fortress” attraction and its closure has hurt tourism over the past year.
City spokesperson Simon April said the city has started a bidding process to allocate long-term leases so tenants can “comfortably invest in the restaurant.”
April said: “Unfortunately, as the majority of bidders were disqualified due to their failure to comply with the requirements set out in the bid documents, the Tender Review Committee resolved to withdraw the Expression of Interest and re-advertise it. ” he said.
“This was not surprising as many bidders had never undertaken such a process before.”
He said the city had entered into “managed lease agreements” with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure for 15 restaurants and kiosks along the coastline from Hibberdeen to Port Edward. Management lease starts from 9th Effective from May 2016 until May 8, 2036.
April, who was attending a bidding process to secure at least a 10-year lease for tenants, said it was discovered during an audit that three of the 15 properties were owned by the city.
These include Erf 2209 Uvongo, which consists of two restaurant facilities, Erf 3378 Margate, which consists of five restaurant facilities, and the remainder of Erf 362 Marina Beach (Marina Restaurant facility). Therefore, 8 of the 15 sites listed in the managed lease belong to the municipality. Two of the 15 properties do not form part of the Admiralty.
“The city has written a letter to the state Department of Public Works requesting that a meeting be held to make them aware of the issues we have identified and to explore ways to move forward before the city signs tenants into 10-year leases.” We asked them to request it,” April said.
“The local government is still waiting.” [the department of] The public works response is an effort to resolve the issue, and unfortunately, the municipality cannot proceed with the bidding process until this issue is resolved. We understand the urgency of this issue and it has been prioritized by the municipality, but the delay is beyond the municipality's control. ”
He added that Caple must be insured and the municipality will indemnify it against “all costs, losses, suits and claims, including claims for damage to property.”
“When the flooding incident occurred in September 2023, the tenant was advised that the insurance would only cover the restaurant’s moving items and not the building. Fortunately for the tenant, the finance team advised that the building's insurance was still valid, so we attempted to assist the tenant by billing the city's insurance for the cost of repairs to the building,” April said.
He said the insurance claim was approved in March, but the city received a settlement letter from the insurance company, but was dissatisfied with it and wrote back to dispute the settlement.
“The City has only received R288,226.34 (including VAT) for Mariner Restaurant and this funding is only available during the February 2025 Adjustment Budget period. However, this settlement amount “It's not enough because it's less than half of the cost of repairing the site,” April said.
He added that city staff “were on scene from the day of the incident, assisting the tenant in any way possible.”
MEC Meyer had not responded to detailed questions at the time of publication, other than to say that the building is owned by the country's public works and infrastructure department.
Ministry spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said the ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Municipality of Ley Nkonyeni for a 20-year lease agreement from May 9, 2016 to May 8, 2036.
“The agreement provides that the land is owned by the authority and the structures and buildings are owned by the municipality. Therefore, the municipality is responsible for managing these, including managing lease agreements with businesses operating on the site. They are responsible for the day-to-day management, maintenance and operation of the building,” Mabaso said.
He added that Minister for Public Works Dean McPherson is calling for a review of these lease agreements.
Mr Mabaso said: “Where local governments are unable to manage real estate in a way that contributes to local economic growth and job creation, the Authority should take over management to ensure that public assets are used effectively for the public good.” “I think so,” he said.
