Times Of Swaziland: ‘OPEN CELLPHONE, CAR WASH BUSINESSES’

‘OPEN CELLPHONE, CAR WASH BUSINESSES’
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 BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 26/05/2020 01:21:00


LOBAMBA - Car washing businesses and those which sell electronic gadgets such as
cellphones should be opened within three days.
This was one of seven resolutions passed by the House of Assembly yesterday.
The Members of Parliament (MPs) unanimously allowed that the Minister of
Commerce, Industry and Trade should permit those operating car washing
businesses and those selling electronic gadgets like cellphones to operate.
The House agreed that the minister should do this within three days.
There is also light at the end of the tunnel for hairdressing salons, driving
schools, internet cafe owners and other informal business traders such as
hawkers as the MPs resolved that the ministry should come up with safety
guidelines and table a report within three days on how they could operate.
Operate
The motion that car washes and others be allowed to operate had been moved by
Hosea MP Mduduzi Mabuza.
It was initially stated that the Ministry of Health was opposed to the operation
of the car washing businesses, especially because the public then turned them
into places of imbibing alcohol.
Even Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini had said nowhere in the new
guidelines had car washes been allowed to operate.
This was after Matsanjeni North MP Phila Buthelezi insisted that there was a
statement issued by the minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade allowing car
washes to operate on May 6, 2020 and wondered who had reversed it.
The PM said if anything, there had been a draft permit for the owners of car
washes to operate, but some people took a chance to use it and pretended as if
these were legal.
MP Mabuza said the electronic shop operators and car washing businesses were no
different from other shops which had been allowed to operate.
He said the guidelines for them should be the same as those of hardware shops
and supermarkets.
“For example, I can allow someone to consume alcohol in my shop and if the
inspectors would find that I did that, they would be allowed to close me down,
so the same should be applicable to these businesses we are talking about,”
said MP Mabuza.
However, on the formulation of guidelines for the operation of salons and
driving schools, among others, the Minister of Health had requested that this be
done in at least seven days as the three days was too little. However, the MPs
objected to this and said if government had a challenge they should come back to
the House and state why they were failing.
The issue of separation of powers between the Arms of Government was then
brought to the fore by Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo, who said as much as
Parliament played an oversight role on Cabinet, they should not be seen as
dictating what government should do.
MP Buthelezi said he had also tried to avoid getting into that debate on the
separation of powers because the MPs may have been seen to be prescribing to
Cabinet.