Mother city gets back to its feet as mini-bus taxi strike ends

Following South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) Western Cape’s announcement on Thursday, notifying commuters about the end to the week-long ‘stay away’, Cape Town’s food outlets say stock supplies are slowly getting back to normal.

City of Cape Town’s (CoCT) Mayco member for Safety and Security, Jean-Pierre Smith, said on a social media post in the wee hours of the morning law enforcement escorted delivery vehicles to help get basic food items such as bread to some of the worst affected communities.

Bread? ‘We’re out of stock’

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“In the undercover of darkness, hundreds of deliveries of Blue Ribbon bread were made to stores, kiosks and spaza shops during the night. ‘Operation: Bread Winner’ began shortly after midnight. Areas included Langa, Masiphumele, Kraaifontein, Delft, Khayelitsha and Nyanga. Regardless of what was to come today, we would ensure that shelves would be stocked with bread over the next few days,” Smith said.

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The seven-day stay away saw Shoprite, Checkers and Woolworths stores low on stock as empty shelves sent residents into a panic, and some shopping malls closed their doors for fear of looting and damage.

The Woolworths group said, “Many Woolworths stores are not operating at full capacity because of reduced staff, product and service availability. The company hopes to have everything back in stock soon and are doing everything possible to minimise the impact on its customers.”

Food supplies and online delivery re-stocked

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The group said they cut operations on Monday but resumed on Wednesday, “Due to the recent protest action and disruptions in the Western Cape, Woolworths took the decision on Monday, 7 August, to close operations in its supply chain due to safety concerns for employees, suppliers and service providers.

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“The combined impact of the operational closure, and stores closing early due to protest action, had a significant impact on product availability in stores. Woolworths resumed supply on Wednesday, 9 August and begin to deliver to stores in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape on the same day.

“Due to the impact on product availability in stores, Woolworths also suspended online and Dash deliveries on Tuesday, 8 August and Wednesday, 9 August. The home delivery service is back up and running as of Thursday, 10 August,” the company said.