{"id":850721,"date":"2026-02-12T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=850721"},"modified":"2026-02-12T16:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:51:11","slug":"top-south-african-shopping-mall-damaged-by-massive-hailstorm-recovering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/850721\/top-south-african-shopping-mall-damaged-by-massive-hailstorm-recovering\/","title":{"rendered":"Top South African shopping mall damaged by massive hailstorm recovering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most stores in the Festival Mall in Kempton Park are open and trading normally after the damage caused by a massive supercell hailstorm in December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festival Mall is a popular shopping centre in the East Rand, located close to OR Tambo Airport and easily accessible from the R21 and various other highways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mall is owned and managed by Growthpoint Properties, an international property company with assets in South Africa, Eastern Europe, Australia, and the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the largest South African primary REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festival Mall is one of Growthpoint\u2019s biggest assets. The centre focuses on convenient shopping and entertainment and offers an Olympic-sized ice rink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mall features a strong selection of major retailers, including Checkers Hyper, Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Game, and Edgars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festival Mall offers a wide array of eateries and fast-food outlets, including Mugg & Bean, Panarottis, Spur, and Nando’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the shopping centre was ramping up for the festive season, a series of severe thunderstorms caused significant structural damage to Festival Mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extreme hailstones and heavy rain caused sections of the Festival Mall roof to fail, affecting the area between Woolworths and Edgars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roof damage forced Festival Mall to temporarily close while experts assessed the damage and safety concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn extremely severe rain and hail storm in the Kempton Park area resulted in damage to sections of the shopping centre’s roof,\u201d it said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mall was closed at the time of the storm, and no one was injured. Mall management and security reacted immediately and alerted the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s said that the teams assessed the damage and began planning repair work to ensure that the mall can reopen safely as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSafety is, and always remains, our top priority. The mall will be closed until certified safe to reopen,\u201d it said on 1 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festival Mall recovering after the damage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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On 3 December 2025, Festival Mall opened all entrances and parking areas for shopper access, despite power outages in the surrounding areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next days, most stores were opened and started operating normally. These include prominent retailers like Checkers, Dis-Chem, and Game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTogether, we\u2019re rebuilding, and the momentum is growing daily. Festival Mall is operational and welcoming you back,\u201d it said on 11 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week before Christmas, it said that most of Festival Mall is open. Only a few stores were not trading over the festive season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech visited Festival Mall in Kempton Park in February 2026 and found that most of the mall was operating normally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a group of fashion and lifestyle retailers remains listed as “Temporarily Closed” due to the damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access to some financial services at the mall also remains restricted while internal repairs are finalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recovery process has been phased, with management focusing on securing the roof’s main structural integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This had to be done before allowing individual tenants to begin internal shopfitting and restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stores and financial branches which are temporarily closed include Absa, Foschini, Jet, Markham, G Star Raw, Fabiani, and Milady\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others which remain affected by the damage are Relay Jeans, Side Step, The Fix, Truworths, Edgars, and Woolworths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos of the Festival Mall in February 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Most stores in the Festival Mall in Kempton Park are open and trading normally after the damage caused by a massive supercell hailstorm in December 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":850730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[24731,6198,21999,24732,24733],"class_list":["post-850721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-festival-mall","tag-growthpoint-properties","tag-johannesburg-stock-exchange-jse","tag-kempton-park","tag-reit-real-estate-investment-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850763,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850721\/revisions\/850763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}