The idea that doing business around the world will change completely after the Covid-19 pandemic ends is probably an exaggeration. People are creatures of habit and their desires need to be met.
We will still frequent restaurants, clubs and live-music events. Humans are social in nature. However, many businesses that were struggling before the pandemic have had their world turned upside down.
One such business that could emerge with many bruises is the cinema. Movie houses have seen their revenues fall over the past few years as people have opted to use the money they would normally spend on one ticket on a month’s subscription to a streaming service.
Dave Rice, the COO of Redefine Properties, the second-largest SA listed property group, said tenants that provide entertainment to visitors at its malls are especially battling and are in for nine months to a year of pain. Cinema chains may close some branches.
Redefine is communicating with each tenant and doing its best to avoid new vacancies. Rice said a lot of attention is being paid on restaurants, which cannot trade during lockdown and will be unable to reopen for months because of social distancing regulations.
But no matter what the landlords try, there are likely to be tenant failures at some of SA’s malls. The government, businesses, the ultrarich and civil society have pledged money to save small businesses but not every business has a viable future and the administration of getting cash to businesses in dire straits will be slow.
The labour court case brought by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) offered an interesting insight into the relationship the union has with the regulator. Admittedly, the officials from Amcu and the department of mineral resources & energy were not the ones facing off, but the arguments between their legal representatives were telling.
Amcu’s aim with the case was to get the health and safety conditions tightened under which mineworkers return to their jobs as the industry moves to 50% capacity under lockdown. Amcu’s lawyer, Alan Dodson, said the union, which represents 100,000 out of 450,000 mineworkers, had repeatedly tried to communicate with the department, only to be ignored, apart from one letter in reply.
Dodson said Amcu had to maintain a working relationship with the Minerals Council SA — a body representing mining companies — and so there was no demand from the union that it pay towards the cost of the proceedings. However, Amcu expected the state to pay, primarily because the union had called in five experts to bolster its case and their affidavits had come at a cost, while benefitting everyone in the industry.
Mark Wesley, the department’s legal representative, took off his metaphorical boxing gloves and landed some powerful punches in return. He depicted the union as trying to set the agenda at the expense of everyone else, and that far from being co-operative, it wanted things done its own way.
There is no love lost between Amcu and the department. It’s something mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe, his director-general Thabo Mokoena and other officials need to rectify. Having two such important players at odds with each other does nobody any good.
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