Onion&All, unique kasi eatery on its knees
Pimville establishment fell prey to looters
The owners of Onion & All, a slick kasi cafe, have been left disheartened when their establishment fell prey to looters.
The establishment, which is located in the heart of Pimville, Soweto, was broken into, vandalised, and had its property stolen during the lootings on Monday.
Muzi Kone, 43, one of the owners, told Sowetan that the incident had left them feeling helpless.
“We opened this place 18 months ago, we wanted it to be a different kind of store than the ones you find ekasi. We bought the store, revamped it into a mordenised kasi cafe, so that it could rival joints such as Maboneng and Neighbourgoods Market – we wanted to bring that experience closer to our people,” said Kone.
Onions & All makes its money by serving kasi cuisine and refreshments, while also offering live performances from bands over the weekends.
He said business was good before the lockdown regulations that were imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We would run out of seats! This place used to be full. But then level 5 and 4 hampered our operations. We haven’t even broken even with this place, we haven’t seen any form of profit since we opened, now our miseries have been compounded by this theft,” he said.
Kone said looters made off “with the whole kitchen ”– fridges, stoves, warmers, a DJ sound system and benches.
“All of these probably amount to about R160,000 – the DJ set alone was R60,000.
They broke the till machine, which is about R30,000, because they could not open it and when they did, they found there was nothing in there,” said Kone.
When Sowetan visited the store, Kone and his staff were cleaning up the mess that was left by rioters.
He said he worked at Discovery, where he learned the importance of starting his own business.
With his retirement money, Kone was able to start a financial solutions company that gave birth to Onions & All.
“We wanted to do something for people in Soweto, something different but which appealed to the masses. But it’s disheartening when your business is destroyed by the people you think would be supportive of your initiative,” he said.
Kone said they had six permanently employed staff members, while they also had 10 others who worked on a temporary basis.
“We had a chat with them and they are obviously scared because they don’t know what is going to happen to their jobs, especially because we haven’t been able to operate properly because of the lockdown regulations. They need reassurances and we are doing what we can to give it to them,” he said.