RENT WOES AT COMMERCIAL CENTRE

MBABANE – While grappling with the effects of feeding their families following the lack of business for the past two months, tenants at the Commercial Centre Building in Mbabane have been given statements of due rental arrears.

The tenants, mainly hairdressers and barbershop owners plying their trade at the normally busy building in the capital city, were handed statements of outstanding rent despite being out of business since the country embarked on a partial lockdown on March 27.

Their frustration mainly emanates from the fact that they were not listed as part of the sectors that were added by government on Wednesday when the partial lockdown was eased.

Cash

They said they were quite pressed for cash and were struggling to make ends meet.
“We don’t want to be pushed to resort to other measures,” they said.

Hairstylists, barbers, nail technicians and other entrepreneurs in the beauty industry, have been deprived of their income since the emergence of the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the country. As such, they have not been able to pay rent for their working spaces.

Most of the letters that each office received at the building reflected money owed for April and May 2020.
Commercial Centre Building in Mbabane is owned by EMPROP.
Some tenants have arrear rentals from as little as E500 to over E6 000.

These figures are inclusive of an electricity bill for April and some for April and May.
Yesterday, some of the hairdressers and barbers were found outside the building, with a cloud of confusion on how to handle their situation.

“I currently owe two months’ rent and to be honest, they have not yet intimidated us to pay - they just keep sending statements. Our rent is due today (yesterday) and we are in sixes and sevens on how we will raise money for the rent,” said a hairdresser, who is a mother to one.

When this journalist arrived near the building, the hairdresser was sitting alone, outside the building, and it seemed as if she was in deep thought.

When asked how much she made, she said she coined about E500 on a busy day and about E200 on a normal day. “This money was enough for me to pay the office and home rent and feed my child,” she said.

Clueless

When asked if she knew her fate if she did not fork out rent, she said she was clueless what decision would be made.
Sometimes, the hairdressers idle around the building to get one customer per week who will make a house call.

“There is no business at all. The worst part is that we have never been considered in any of the reviews of the partial lockdown,” she said.

Another hairstylist, who preferred to remain anonymous, was deeply saddened by the fact that it was her birthday yesterday and she could not even spoil herself.

Birthday

“There is no money coming in - none at all. I cannot even afford a decent meal on my birthday, how much more the thousands of Emalangeni being demanded from us. Besides the rent here at our workplace, we cannot feed our children at home. I have two sons and we are already going hungry,” she said. She said she just hoped their landlord did not lock them out.

Like her peers, the single mother of two used to make E500 a day and now, she goes a week without making even a cent.
Another group of barbers and hairstylists, who were also idling with  the hope of finding a solution to make ends meet, said they would really be infuriated if they would be locked out.

“We understand that the property owner needs to make money at the end of the day but these circumstances are different. We did not bring this to ourselves as we have been given clear orders by government not to operate,” they said.

“We need money and we are not making it. It is not our fault that we cannot pay rent,” they said.
They pleaded with government to negotiate with their landlord on their behalf to defer payments or make discounts for them.

Opened

“The only hope we have is in government to mediate in this situation. Most sectors will be partly opened for business and we have been closed   from the beginning in March. This road has been nothing but hell for us in this sector,” they said.
They also requested government to review their shutdown and create innovative strategies in which they could work.

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