by Innocent Mujeri
Tenants hard-pressed to make payment of rentals during the lockdown period were given a relief after Cabinet recommended Presidential Regulations imposing a moratorium on evictions of tenants who might have delayed settling their rental obligations to their landlords.
The same relief was extended to landlords who delay payment of mortgage instalments during, this lockdown period.
This was said by the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa while presenting the 13th Decision Matrix yesterday.
“In view of the foregoing, Cabinet resolved as follows; that His Excellency, the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) consider the promulgation of Presidential Regulations to give relief to both tenants and landlords during the lockdown period; that both residential and commercial properties be afforded a moratorium on evictions in respect of applicable lease obligations due for the period from April to the end of the lockdown, including the payment of rentals due for those months,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Cabinet also recommended that any unpaid rentals due for the period from April 2020 to end of the lockdown period be paid in equal instalments after the declaration of the end of the lockdown period together with the rental payments due for those months and all rent deferrals should be paid without any interest charges or penalties of whatever nature.
In view of the fact that homeowners or landlords might have been prejudiced by the delayed payment of rentals by their tenants, Cabinet also resolved that the same relief be applied to landlords who were obliged to make repayments on their properties or on any other property to which the rent deferrals apply.
Analyst Mr Tashinga Chabayanzara said the move taken by Government was welcome, considering that most people were not going to work due to the set lockdown rules.
“The decision (delayed payment of rentals) is a good one because most people are not going to work because of lockdown. However, this decision does not mean Government has barred people from paying their rental obligations during this lockdown. Government is only saying that those who fail or are struggling to pay the rentals during the lockdown period should not be victimised or evicted, but allowed to pay the rental arrears in instalments once the lockdown is over,” said Chabayanzara.
Meanwhile, in order to reach the COVID-19 testing target of at least 1000 tests per day, Cabinet resolved that the joint COVID-19 testing teams would immediately conduct tests in all the provinces and these tests would be done in phases.
Phase 1 of the COVID-19 testing will be focused in Harare and Bulawayo and this will see the testing of security personnel and their families; all medical staff and patients at all central hospitals; all returning residents from abroad in designated mandatory quarantine facilities as well as all contacts of confirmed cases, regardless of whether they show symptoms of the disease or not.
All the community around a cluster of cases; immigration officials at R.G. Mugabe, J.M. Nkomo, and Victoria Falls International Airports; at Beitbridge and Forbes Border Posts; drivers at truck stops and all cases fitting the case definition will all be tested under Phase 1.
Phase 2 of the COVID-19 testing will then entail, the expansion of sample collection and testing to all categories under Phase 1, across all provinces and districts.
Since, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 on 20 March, Government has intensified its response to the pandemic and to date, 7 287 cumulative screening and tests were done. Of all the tests done, 32 people were diagnosed with the disease, with 5 of them recovering and 4 succumbing to the virus.
