The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) has welcomed the ‘balanced review’ of the lockdown by His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa which focuses on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic while opening up the economy.
Mr. Denford Mutashu, the CZR president said the measured lockdown extension has eased business operations and his organisation is of the strong view that this will play a significant role in injecting life into various businesses.
He said that the fact that exemption letters are no longer required is a great move towards the smoothening of the movement of essential service providers and goods and services
“Reopening of bottle stores serving only takeaways is sweet news to imbibers and is very strategic in serving operations of breweries and the more than 20 000 bottle stores across the country whose employees were getting retrenched.
“SMEs and food markets will now open guided by WHO protocols but CZR is of the belief that there is a need for relevant ministries to be proactive and set out these guidelines as more failed to reopen despite the President announcing same in the previous lockdown.
“Going forward there is a need to operationalize a stimulus package for the informal sector and SMEs who have been closed for a long time as some used up their capital to keep them going during the lockdown,” Mr. Mutashu said.
Part of the new measures introduced by President Mnangagwa includes;
- Curfew now 10pm to 5.30am
- Letters no longer required for movement of people
- Supermarkets to open until 7pm and must enforce social distancing and temperature check
- Industry to open with strict WHO adherence etc
- SME, food markets among others can now reopen
- Intercity travel can now resume
- Funeral gatherings to maximum of 30 people while other social gatherings will have maximum of 50 people.
- Night clubs to remain closed while bottle stores open for take away
- Restaurants to open for takeaways and deliveries. No sit-ins as yet.
Mr. Mutashu added that it is however critical that retailers, wholesalers must continue to adhere to strict Covid-19 prevention measures
