Lift The Lockdown, 82% Of Companies Cant Pay Salaries For More Than A Month - CZI

The Confederation Of Zimbabwe Industries has urged the government to lift restriction measures on companies and said 82% of companies can only afford to pay salaries for one month and should be allowed to resume operations, Newswire reports.

A report by CZI reads in part:

The implementation of the lockdown should take into consideration the underlying conditions in the economy and the limited fiscal leg-room to rescue industry. Looking at the scenarios in Europe, it shows that they have allowed production including that of non-essential goods to continue except in Italy and Spain

Our businesses and our government both have no capacity to sustain the costs of a total lockdown. Preliminary analysis of data collected from businesses across all sectors of the economy on the impact of the lockdown indicate that companies are not able to sustain the payment of wages and salaries for longer periods without production taking place. Eighty two percent of the respondents indicated that they can only sustain payment of wages and salaries for one month under lockdown

President Mnangagwa is on record saying he is not yet sure if he will lift the lockdown after the initial 21 days he imposed to try and curb spreading COVID-19.

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