IT distributor and PC assembler Mustek said on Friday that the financial losses associated with the ransacking of and arson at its Durban office will not exceed R20-million.
TechCentral reported on Tuesday that criminals had breached security at the Redlyn Business Park in River Horse Valley, north of the city, and the offices were trashed, looted and torched.
“Shareholders are advised that Mustek’s branch in KwaZulu-Natal has been significantly damaged as a result of being looted and then set on fire,” Mustek said in a statement issued via the JSE.
“The group is assessing the damage caused to its branch and total losses to inventory and equipment is not expected to exceed R20-million. The loss of profit due to business interruption will be quantified in due course.”
Mustek said it has the “appropriate insurance cover and has notified its insurers accordingly”.
“Temporary warehouse space has been secured and the group expects the branch to reopen as soon as
it is safe and practical to do so.”
Priority
It added that its priority remains the well-being and safety of its employees, customers and assets. “Trade continues as normal in the rest of the group’s operations.”
Telkom, meanwhile, said some of its stores and a warehouse operated by subsidiary BCX were impacted by the violence.
“Although the financial impact of the destruction to property and disruption of Telkom operations, suppliers and business partners is still being collated, Telkom is on course with recovery of operations impacted by the mass action in the past week,” it said.
“Telkom prioritises the integrity of the network and has continued with network operations where it was safe to do so. To protect employees, technicians have not been despatched to certain areas, and we continue to monitor the situation to ensure employee safety. This has resulted in an increase in the number of incidents and length of time that we are attending to incidents and the total number of incidents to be attended.”
An attack on warehouse at the Durban port, meanwhile, affected BCX and is “likely to negatively impact delivery times of hardware”. In the retail business, Telkom has begun work on rehabilitated stores damaged by the rampaging mobs. — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media
