This week marks the one-year anniversary of Eswatini’s mass call for democratic reforms. The last week of June in 2021 will be remembered for decades to come as one of the most unstable and violent times in the kingdom. The call for democracy was accompanied by nation-wide protests that saw businesses also becoming the target of people’s anger.
Like many other affected business owners, Janet Ongole, 50, who was the owner of Cafe Amora shares how she was left disheartened after her business fell prey to looters.
Janet’s restaurant, which was located at Woodlands Shopping Centre, in Mbabane, was broken into, vandalised, and had its property stolen during the looting spree.
The neighbourhood shopping centre bore the marks of the looting and vandalism for some time. A painful reminder of the week that shook the country to the core.
Janet is a Ugandan who moved to Eswatini in 1995. She began her career in Eswatini in public health working for the government and for international and local NGOs to improve social health systems and programming. In 2018, she branched off and ventured into the business world when her business, Cafe Amora, opened its doors, thus providing the surrounding communities with a trendy place to sip some coffee and eat brunch with family and friends.
Janet said the business fought to stay open and pay its expenses during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, that June the cafe was doing well then BANG! DESTRUCTION!
The looting resulted in the loss of livelihoods for many people — including Janet’s 6 employees. She feels that the political unrest may prove to be a bigger obstacle to overcome for the business community.
While Shoprite Supermarket had its shelves completely emptied, Janet said the looters damaged and made off with her restaurant’s equipment and furniture — rendering the process of starting all over again next to impossible.
She said it was so painful to see how businesses were affected and is not sure how many of them will be able to open again.
“We’re at ground zero,” Janet said.
Uncertain Future
When we first spoke last year Janet shared that her next step would be guided by whether it would be viable to continue with the business. However she had reservations about whether it was worth it to reopen as this setback came at a time when she sending her children to university. With the passage of time, it looks like that the setback in fact dealt the business owner a painful blow as Cafe Amora never did open its doors again.
While the destruction left her feeling ‘powerless’, Janet said she was overwhelmed by the support she received from people; including the cafe’s patrons, other business owners and even children reached out to express their shock and offer their sympathies.
Exactly one year later, our thoughts are still with all the local business owners, especially SMEs, that were devastated by the looting and violence as well as those who lost their lives.
By The Swazi Innerviwer
