eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
About 1200 firms have been issued with exemption letters in the manufacturing and commerce sectors to operate during the lockdown, Industry and Commerce Minister, Dr Sekai Nzenza has said.
Following the recent announcement of the Level Four lockdown, now entering its fourth week, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce was mandated to issue exemption letters to businesses in the manufacturing sector and related value chains, including the commerce and service sector in terms of Statutory Instrument 10 of 2021 Public Health, (Covid 19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (Amendment) Regulations 2020.
So far, the ministry has issued 571 letters to manufacturing companies and 673 to the commerce sector.
Traditionally, most companies close shop during the festive season and utilise the long break to undertake annual maintenance works on plant and machinery and usually the buffer stock is meant to cover period up to mid-January when they re-open.
However, Dr Nzenza noted that such tradition was broken as some companies did not close down during the festive season, in particular those in the pharmaceutical, food and drink value chains and other producers of basic commodities such as mealie-meal, cooking oil, flour, bread, milk and tea. This new business mind-set shift, according to the minister, has enabled continued availability of most basic goods and services.
“We have observed that the availability of goods has not been affected as business under essential services largely operated without hindrances,” said Dr Nzenza. “Some of the companies did not also close during festive season so the supply of commodities was no affected.”
Zimbabwe tightened restrictions meant to curb the spread of coronavirus early this month, including a 6am to 6pm nationwide curfew and banning operations of non-essential businesses after the country recorded a surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths related to the virus complications.
The latest round on restrictions keeps everyone not in essential services at home expect when they need to buy food or medicine, collect water or seek medical attention among other essential needs.
Zimbabwe first introduced a tough lockdown in March last year but had gradually eased the restrictions.
The businesses allowed to operate open at 8 am and close at 3 pm. However, the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe, has since written to Government requesting the business hours to be reviewed upwards as some of the members were now complaining of viability challenges.
Dr Nzenza said companies that were issued with exemption letters during the previous lockdowns were familiar with criteria for renewing their applications and the ministry “promptly extended their exemption letters.”
“There had been also new applications that the Ministry assessed in line with the gazetted criteria for essential services,” she added.
EMCOZ last week also said some of their members were still facing challenges to obtain exemption letters as most line ministries staff are working from home.
While the employers applauded Government for introducing the current lockdown to contain the spread of the virus and save lives, it requested business hours to be extended “in order to improve on productivity.”
“We humbly request for a review of business operating hours (opening 7am and closing 4 for manufacturing, 8am to 5pm for supermarkets and other retail outlets) to reduce overcrowding and curfew hours to run from 7pm to 5am to allow movement of those in essential services to travel from home to work and back ahead of curfew hours.
“Drivers entrusted with the responsibility of driving other employees should be exempted from curfew hours to facilitate their travelling from work to home,” said EMCOZ in a letter to Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga.
