By Business Reporter

The business community has hailed President Mnangagwa for extending the business operating hours to nine hours per day.

On Monday, President Mnangagwa announced a new set of national lockdown measures which saw business hours being extended from 0800 hours to 1700 hours.

Speaking to this publication, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers Association (CZR) president Denford Mutashu, said the new operating hours is a sign that the Government is trying to rescue businesses that have been affected by the pandemic.

“As CZR, we would like to thank President Mnangagwa for a balanced two weeks extension of the lockdown. We also thank the President for being a listening leader because we had proposed for the extension of business hours and reduction of curfew hours which has duly been accorded in the new reviewed lockdown statement,” said Mutashu.

Mutashu further said on their part, businesses will continue to support the Government in the fight against Covid 19.

“As CZR, we will continue to urge the business community to support the Government in its fight against Covid 19 through financial, material and moral support,” said the CZR president.

Meanwhile, the manager of Pachedu Wholesalers in Mt Darwin, Fungai Jasi, lauded the Government for ensuring that the key sectors of the economy are not disrupted by the Covid 19 pandemic.

“We thank the Government for extending the business operating hours. The new lockdown measures will ensure that our businesses will not collapse as we will have more time to do our business. This again shows that the Government is doing its best to curb the spread of the pandemic as well as keeping the key sectors of the economy operational,” said Jasi.

Since the first lockdown was announced in March last year, Government has introduced various measures to ensure the continued operation of key sectors of the economy to ensure that the country will not totally collapse.