Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) has called on government to introduce a hard national lockdown to reduce the surge of Covid-19 cases that is currently being witnessed in the country.
In a statement, CZR president, Mr Denford Mutashu said a 30-day lockdown will help turn the tide against the pandemic.
The business lobby group also urged the government to introduce an 8pm to 6am curfew and limit operating hours from 8am to 4pm daily for essential service providers.
“Companies should also submit a list of their essential employees to a command centre in their area of operations and only essential services providers should remain operational during the proposed 30-day lockdown. Public transport operators should also carry 50 percent of their capacity.
“As CZR we implore government to revise lockdown offence penalties,” he said.
He added that government should enforce tight security in that lockdown which will ban all gatherings that are Covid-19 super spreaders.
“Law enforcement agencies should clamp down on illegal gatherings, illegal private house parties and close all shebeens as well as enforcing minimum numbers for funerals,” said Mutashu.
Government recently enforce lockdown on hotspot areas across the country as well as extending the school opening dates by two weeks as a measure to contain the spread of the virus.
