Legalising the new lockdown

ON June 29, the President announced what he called “additional enhanced Level 4 lockdown measures” which were to take immediate effect and last for two weeks. These measures have now been legalised by amendments made to the lockdown order by a new statutory instrument (Statutory Instrument 189 of 2021) published on June 30. In this Bill Watch, we shall outline the latest amendments.

Duration of the new lockdown The new lockdown measures will last until July 13, which means they will end at midnight on Tuesday July 13 unless they are extended through another amendment to the lockdown order.

It may be noted incidentally that the localised lockdowns in Kwekwe, Kariba, Hurungwe and Makonde will end two days earlier, on July 11. Intercity transport

All inter-city transport is outlawed, except for:

● Transport services engaged in the carrying staff for essential services

● Carrying sick persons to hospital

● Transporting staff of foreign embassies

● Transporting water, food, fuel, basic goods and medical supplies, and

● Carrying police, army personnel and other enforcement officers.

● This is the effect of section 4(1) (f ) of the order following the repeal of section 4(9).

Curfew

There is a nightly curfew from 6:30pm until 6am. Although the new amendments do not say so, the provisions of section 25 of the order presumably apply to this curfew, which means that everyone must stay in their homes during curfew hours. People may leave their homes only for the following purposes:

● To travel no more than 5km in order to buy basic necessities at a supermarket or food store — but not at a “people’s market” — or to buy fuel or gas at a garage or service station.

● To buy medicine at a pharmacy within 5km from home, or to obtain medical assistance

● To go to work, in the case of people employed in an essential service, or

● To render assistance to relatives or other persons in one’s care.

Foreign diplomats are exempt from these restrictions. All this is provided for in section 25(4) as read with section 4(1)(a)(ii) to (vi) of the order.

Business hours

According to the new section 26E(2)(e)(ii) of the order, businesses other than those providing essential services may open only between the hours of 8am and 3:30pm. This does not give the full picture, however, because:

● Bottlestores may open between 10am and 4pm (i.e. later than other businesses), according to section 26E(2)(h)(ii) of the order

● Bars attached to restaurants and lodges must close at 10pm, according to section 26E(2)(h)(iv) of the order. This does not apply to hotel bars, whose closing hours are unclear. They may be allowed to remain open until the closing time specified in their licences (section 19C(2)(c) of the order) or — more likely — must close at 3:30pm like all other businesses. [This needs clarification].

● Beerhalls and night clubs are closed altogether (section 26E(2)(h) (i) of the order)

● “People’s markets” may open earlier than 8am, apparently, but people attending them must disperse by 3:30pm (section 26E(2)(k) of the order).

Decongestion of businesses

According to section 26E(2)(e)(iii) III of the order, the offices of businesses, other than those providing essential services, must be decongested so that no more than half (50%) of the staff complement are present at any one time. This does not apply to the offices of the government and local authorities, which must de-congest so that no more than 40% are present.

Comments

Readers may have been bemused by all the section numbers we have cited in this bulletin. We cited them to give readers an idea of the difficulties that face anyone who tries to understand the lockdown order — the progressive stages of puzzlement, bafflement, frustration and then sheer mindless fury that assail a person who attempts such a task.

Even the authors do not understand it completely. The latest instrument amending the order — SI 189/2021 — repeals section 27A despite its having been repealed more than two weeks ago by SI 170/2021.

We have said many times before that the order must be re-issued in a simplified form so that ordinary people can understand it. In the three days to July 1, 10 252 people were arrested for contravening the order, and since the end of March the total number of people arrested has been a staggering 91 250.

Those people cannot all have been deliberately defying the law: most, we are sure, were unaware they were breaching the order. The law must be simplified to avoid making so many people unwitting criminals and to prevent so many people endangering their health and the health of us all.