Blow to staff as tyre business closes

Owner says paying off loan placed him under pressure

ALMOST a year after it opened, a Dunlop franchise store in Mdantsane has had to close down because of a lack of working capital.

The shop, next to the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in N2, offered tyre-changing and wheel alignment services, among other services, but its owner, Simon Tsotso, 72, who also owns Zizo’s Taxi Spares at the Highway taxi rank, said the business had become unsustainable.

The shop’s closure means that 12 people are now without jobs, adding to already high unemployment statistics.

Tsotso said he had been in a hurry to open the Dunlop store last October.

“It’s all just purely bad luck and very unfortunate that I could no longer sustain the business. My biggest mistake was getting a loan from my partners, because that applied a lot of pressure in terms of meeting my overheads, paying the bond and all the other expenses the business incurred.

“Expenditure exceeded R100 000 every month, but the business was not well supported.

“Although there was a lot of support from the taxi industry, my plea to government and municipal entities for business fell on deaf ears, which strained the working capital to such an extent I had to take money from Zizo’s Taxi Spares to sustain the Dunlop store, until I couldn’t do that any more,” he said.

The Mdantsane businessman said although he struggled to keep the business afloat, he believed there was a lot of potential in it because of the demand for such services. “Obviously I did not just open the business, but I saw a gap and a demand which is why I felt pressure to quickly address it.

“Prior to opening the store, I was doing this work from my [shipping] containers and there was too much of a need for me to grow into a bigger professional structure, which is why I bought the plot before approaching partners to help with the infrastructure, but things are different when you work informally.

“I rushed into things, yet if I had waited and saved enough money to start the business at my own expense, there would be no pressure from people demanding repayments,” he said.

Another tyre business owner, Sicelo Mahlathi, 48, who took over his father’s business at the Saule Building opposite Sisa Dukashe Stadium, about 20m away from the abandoned Dunlop store, said he would love to move into the Dunlop space but could not afford to do so.

When asked if he was aware about government agencies that could support him with funding for his business, Mahlathi said: “Maybe if there were enough awareness campaigns to inform people like me, I would not be here today.” —

Pictures: MARK ANDREWS OPEN AND CLOSED: Above, Sicelo Mahlathi stands in front of workers outside his popular tyre business, which he took over from his father following his father’s death last year. The buzzing, informal one-stop tyre shop, situated at the Saule Building...