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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
BUSINESS leaders have commended the Government for relaxing Covid-19 lockdown to Level 2 from Level 4 saying this will promote the opening up of the economy.

Announcing the easing of the national lockdown at State House in Harare Tuesday, President Mnangagwa urged Zimbabweans to remain vigilant and guard against the pandemic spread by continuing to observe all the lockdown rules, especially as new variants were emerging.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president, Mr Denford Mutashu, said his organisation was also encouraging businesses to safeguard lives.

“CZR applauds President Mnangagwa for relaxing Covid-19 restrictions by announcing a level 2 lockdown in order to curb the global pandemic,” he said.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has also welcomed the relaxation of restrictions and hopes this decision would help business to sustain gains that had been achieved under the previous measures.

“This development is welcomed by industry, as businesses had started to show signs of stress due to Covid-19 induced (shorter) trading hours.

“Most companies have vaccinated over 80 percent of their employees in anticipation of increasing production time,” said CZI.

The new relaxed restrictions run for two weeks and will be reviewed thereafter. The relaxed measures include the permitting of intercity travel, business time operating hours now from 8AM to 7PM, curfew is now from 10PM to 5AM, and public gatherings allowed to have a maximum of 100 people.

“Despite the latest relaxation, CZR urges business and the general public to strictly adhere to the measures,” said Mr Mutashu.

“The country is in a state of war against the invisible enemy, the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is our collective responsibility to stop its spread.” — @okazunga