BUSINESSES that were broken into, looted and sometimes
burnt down during the recent nationwide protests might not be able to rebuild,
restock and reopen, business leaders have said.
Last week Zimbabwe witnessed widespread protests against a
steep hike in the price of fuel and general economic decay which turned violent
when security forces used excessive force in a bid to quell the protests.
On Monday citizens took to the streets to express their
anger at government’s poor handling of the deteriorating economy.
The cost of living has shot up beyond the reach of many as
prices of fuel and basic commodities continue to rise.
Businesses which spoke to The Standard yesterday said they
were already struggling to restock and the current situation was making things
worse. They feared massive job losses.
“We are yet to assess the full impact, but the situation is
not healthy for any business. The message is that the incapacitation of workers
should not lead to destruction of property and looting,” Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CIZ) Matabeleland chapter president, Joseph Gunda said.
“Businesses are already struggling to restock (following
the recent looting) and this current difficult situation makes things worse and
businesses may never be able to recover. Stayaways should be conducted in a
peaceful way. The country will certainly need to rebuild the infrastructure
that was destroyed,” he said.
Association for Business in Zimbabwe chief executive Victor
Nyoni said there would be loss of employment.
“We are in a situation now that supermarkets will not be
able to restock. Also those businesses that have been affected do not have
insurance cover because of the economic environment in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“As a result, there is no way that they are going to
restock and those people that are employed in those shops are now out of
employment,” he said.
Nyoni said the country was likely to experience more
economic woes due to the destruction of property and looting.
“In fact, targeting private businesses — the people who
keep this economy ticking — is a huge mistake. We implore government to find a
way now to help those businesses to take off again but the situation is dire.”
Nyoni said some businesses would be left in debt as they
had purchased the goods they were trading on credit.
“Infrastructure has been destroyed. What that then means is
that you also need money to rebuild the shop, but already businesses were
operating below capacity and to imagine that there can even be funding to do
such things is unthinkable,” he said.
CIZ president Sifelani Jabagwe said the situation was
worrying.
He urged protesters to demonstrate responsibly, adding that
the destruction of infrastructure and property would further cripple the
economy.
“We have not put a value to it, but we believe that the
impact is actually significant. Companies have not been operating and it’s
quite damaging for the economy,”he said.
Jabangwe said Zimbabwe needed to attract foreign investors,
but it would be difficult to do that due to the current instability in the
country.
“We need, one way or the other, to attract new investment
into the country, but when we do this (destruction of property), will we be able
to do it? With violence we shut out investment because we portray our country
as unstable — a place where citizens go about destroying property,” he said.
In Bulawayo, several business including Choppies
supermarkets, shopping malls and other small shops, were looted and some burnt
down. Standard
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