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Business Reporter

THE Restaurant Operators’ Association of Zimbabwe (ROAZ) says the extension of operating hours for its members has provided significant relief for business.

Under the latest relaxed Covid-19 regulations, restaurants and hotels offering catering services can now operate from 8AM to 10PM.

Bars and nightclubs can also open for vaccinated persons only during the same operating time.

ROAZ president, Mr Bongai Zamchiya, said the additional operational time in the evenings would allow for suppers to be served, which is the mainstay of most restaurant business.

“It’s a step towards normalisation of restaurant trading hours and we look forward to further extensions in due course,” he said.

“We are pleased that our increased operational ability will also provide relief to the hundreds of businesses across all sectors, including a great many SMEs, which depend wholly or in part on us for their own viability.”

Restaurants have been hit hard by Covid restrictions, with closure or partial operation the pattern for the past 22 months.

This has created viability problems and has resulted in closures and layoffs of employees, said Mr Zamchiya.

“The sooner we return to normal operations the better, and we look forward to that,” he said.

Since its formation at the end of 2020, ROAZ has spearheaded a campaign to highlight that its members were not a threat to public health and that operating environments in these restaurants were safer and healthier than in almost all other businesses and organisations.

The association believes restaurants should be able to operate in conditions of lockdown and has called for an end to closures and to restriction of operations, in line with recognised trends across the world in recent months.

“We have been, and remain, fully supportive of national efforts to contain and eradicate Covid-19 and look forward to continued co-operation with the health authorities on an ongoing basis, as well as to the maintenance of restaurant operations in all situations, obviously with mutually acceptable conditions,” said the ROAZ president.

Mr Zamchiya said as a trade, restaurants would also continue to support the Government’s successful vaccination programme, which he said was a leader in the region and across Africa.