BUSINESS has resumed at Mbare’s Magaba home industry with informal traders defying COVID-19 lockdown regulations and going about their usual operations.
This is despite that the government recently banned
operations of the informal sector, which was classified under non-essential
services in the 30-day lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the
coronavirus.
A survey by NewsDay revealed that vendors have flocked the
Siyaso and Magaba areas and that they are trading on a full-scale, including
undertaking manufacturing activities.
As part of enforcing the COVID-19 regulations, the Zimbabwe
Republic Police mounted several roadblocks on roads leading to the central
business district (CBD), barring unauthorised motorists and pedestrians from
entering the CBD.
Health experts have also warned of a surge in
COVID-19-related deaths if people continue to defy lockdown regulations.
Chief co-ordinator of the national response to the COVID-19
pandemic, Agnes Mahomva (pictured) told NewsDay in an interview recently that
members of the public were obliged to follow COVID-19 regulations to protect
themselves from the raging pandemic.
But vendors that spoke to NewsDay argued that economic
constraints had pushed them into violating the lockdown regulations, although
they were cognisant of the seriousness of the pandemic.
“I can’t stay at home while I have nothing to eat. The
seven days that I have been at home doing nothing have been tough. It’s better
that I play hide and seek with the police and get to put food on the table than
face the prospect of watching my family starve,” Eliot Magama, a street vendor
in Mbare said.
Another informal trader, Onias Mapanga said the government
should have considered the plight of vendors who survive from hand-to-mouth
before imposing the 30-day lockdown.
“Government should have secured funding for the informal
traders so that they don’t starve when they are not allowed to conduct their
operations. People are dying of COVID-19, but for me, there is no difference.
It’s better to die trying,” Mapanga said.
Mbare was recently on the spotlight for violation of
COVID-19 regulations after thousands of people attended a New Year’s eve gig
which was held at Matapi Flats.
Organisers of the gig the Chillspot Records duo of Arnold
“Fantan” Kamudyariwa and DJ Levels (real name Tafadzwa Kadzimwe) and promoter
Simbarashe Chanachimwe, popularly known as Dhama, were sentenced to an
effective six-month jail term each for violating COVID-19 regulations.
The Zimbabwe Informal Sectors Organisation (Ziso) led by
its executive director Promise Mkwananzi has since filed papers at the High
Court, challenging the constitutionality of the recently imposed 30-day
lockdown by government.
Ziso is demanding that Vice-President and Health and Child
Care minister Constantino Chiwenga, must be ordered to allow all goods and
service providers to operate subject to prescribed precautionary measures such
as wearing of masks, gloves, using sanitisers, maintaning social distancing and
temperature checks.
Alternatively, they want the court to order Chiwenga to
reduce the period of enforcement of the Level 4 lockdown from 30 to 21 days
with effect from January 3, 2021.
The High Court is yet to make a ruling on the matter.
Newsday
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