Concrete proposals will help reopening of business

BOTH the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) and the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) have made carefully worded pleas that more sectors should be allowed to open during the extended lockdown.

They present a strong case, acknowledging the public health threat of Covid-19, but also the need to get the less essential areas of the economy moving so that businesses and jobs can be saved.

In his Sunday address to the nation, President Mnangagwa made it explicitly clear that he was prepared to listen to anyone with good ideas to get Zimbabwe through the Covid-19 pandemic as unscathed as possible.

Emcoz and ZNCC should take him at his word and go far beyond a plea, but start working on plans on how the remaining sectors can open, with particular emphasis on the retail trade, the major sector still under strong lockdown conditions.

Only supermarkets, food shops and pharmacies from this sector are open.

Mining and industry are easier to restart because they can be controlled.

Mine owners, factory owners and even complexes housing informal manufacturers can easily ban public access and enforce controls recommended or ordered by public health authorities, from social distancing to excellent personal hygiene.

Generally, commerce presents a different set of challenges.

While shopkeepers can limit access to their shops and control customers once inside, they have zero control over what happens on the pavement outside, and if all shops opened tomorrow there would be large crowds.

Going from lockdown to the sort of crowds in the streets we saw the week before the lockdown is obviously not an option at this stage, and even when the present lockdown extension expires, it is likely that the Government will be wanting a phased lift, with adequate public health controls in place.

This gives those who represent commerce an opportunity and a duty to study how best the reopening of this critical sector can be done in a way that preserves tens of thousands of businesses and jobs, but at the same time does not impose any unacceptable risks of Covid-19 infections running out of control.

One way during the lockdown might well involve winning exemptions for a sub-sector at a time.

A good start, if this approach was adopted, might well be the hardware stores.

With so many people at home on lockdown, a lot of neglected spring cleaning has been done and those with money are looking at home and garden improvements.

They need paint, the odd hardware item and that sort of thing plus garden seed, fertiliser and some tools.

At the same time, those reopening industry will need access to hardware stores, especially in the informal sector. So this sub-sector gives a manageable block of shops that could operate as a trial run for rules that need to be imposed.

Here, ZNCC and Emcoz could take the initiative and meet public health experts and work out what these rules need to be and how they can be enforced.

Any conflict between health experts and shop owners would be on timing of a reopening, not on the conditions needed for a reopening.

Shop-owners do not want to endanger their customers and the health experts do not want to endanger society.

So, regardless of when the phased lifting of a lockdown starts, a plan on how to do this must be in place, and preferably tested.

The actual timing is one of those decisions that eventually reach the President’s desk. That is his job and his call after he has considered all factors and advice. But the more concrete the plans that are presented and the fewer there are of less precise appeals, the easier it will be for him to make the best decision.

Once the results of the first phase of the next set of exemptions have been seen, whenever that is done, any anomalies corrected, and the new risks calculated, then going to the second and subsequent stages is easier.

We note that each set of exemptions requires full cooperation of both those exempted and of the general public. If everyone behaves and follows rules, then the phased lifting of lockdown regulations can be a smooth and managed process.

If cheating becomes widespread then the President is left with all or not choices, which does not really advance anyone’s cause.

Government and the business sectors have become a lot closer with Covid-19.

By working together with the same goals, to open business without unduly endangering public health, they will create even stronger bonds, and those in turn will make the rapid growth we need after the Covid-19 menace recedes far easier.

People who work together, fight together, in a major emergency normally learn to trust each other and learn to cooperate on bringing about a wider set of goals than just their own.