 After losing 53 cars during the 2019 Johannesburg xenophobic attacks, O.K. Uchendi never thought that his business of 11 years, a second-hand car dealership, would be burnt again in less than two years. On Sunday, he received a call at midnight that his store was engulfed in flames as routine and violence, the worst in South Africa for years, escalated raking hundreds of businesses. Already buckling under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic and high unemployment, SMMEs like O.K. are the hardest-hit businesses that may not recover from their rest and risk, adding to the already high unemployment rate. I saw the place engulfed in flames. I feel like committing suicide because my livelihood has been taken away from me in my eyes. I was sitting crying helpless because I can't do anything. You'll find that the property is on flame. Like, if you look around you the way I said, there's an evoke. What 220,000 for a client? It's gone. There's a discovery. There's a Range Rover. There's a Golf 7. Now the month is coming to an end. I still need to pay my rent. I've got three kids I need to take care of. How will I take care of my kids? The one way that summarizes the impact is catastrophic. Because even before the pandemic started and the current mayhem started, SMMEs were already undergoing some deep, long-standing conditions.